


Soulmates and other reasons the universe hates Zuko

by AtLAstuff



Series: That soulmate AU [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: All background ships are pretty minor, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Eventual Happy Ending, Homophobia, M/M, Rated M to be sure but could probably pass for Teen, Very Zukka centered, Zuko has synesthesia because that made sense to me, follows the course of the original series, gay Zuko/lesbian Mai solidarity, slowburn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-21 06:14:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 48,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17637347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtLAstuff/pseuds/AtLAstuff
Summary: In which Zuko and Sokka find out they’re soulmates in the absolute worst way possible.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has a lot of timeskips, mostly forwards in time but also some backwards, but everything will be very clearly explained when it takes place. It follows the course of the series, so you can assume everything that’s not written about happens like in the series for the most part. ^^

_ ZUKO  _

  
Zuko didn’t want a soulmate. The whole concept was stupid as it is, and so was his tattoo. 

 

At the age of 10, everyone with a soulmate would get a special tattoo, representing something unique about said soulmate. Zuko had been excited at first, the idea of someone who would truly love him seemed almost too good to be true, but his dreams and hopes had been crushed way too quickly. 

 

First of all, his parents weren’t soulmates. Sure, their relationship wasn’t exactly the happiest either, but that also meant there were people whose soulmate would marry someone else regardless, considering his mom once accidentally said that, yes she had a tattoo and no, it wasn’t his father. 

 

Secondly, some people would never get a tattoo. No one was sure what this meant, if it was because the other person had died or would die before they could meet or that they just simply didn’t have one. That thought terrified Zuko. 

 

When he turned 10, he started wishing he was one of these people without a tattoo. 

  
  


His tattoo had been a boomerang of all things! A boomerang! Who even uses a boomerang? Even as a 10 year old he knew swords were way cooler and far superior. 

 

His father had been especially upset over this, walking into his room on his birthday, demanding to see the tattoo and turning sour straight away at the sight, saying there was no way his tattoo belonged to a girl. Young Zuko wasn’t quite sure what the problem with that was, but according to his father it was one of the worst things that could happen. 

 

“I hope your sister gets something better than this,” his father had said bitterly. “This is not how I raised you!” he accused him before slamming the door, as if Zuko had chosen the tattoo himself. 

 

After that no words by his father were spoken about it anymore, but once his sister woke up at her 10th birthday and didn’t have a tattoo the favouritism towards her became even more clear. 

  
His uncle did speak about it though. “Don’t worry prince Zuko, whoever your soulmate is, as long as you both are happy.” he had said one day, seeing the tattoo when Zuko had taken his shirt of to practice his firebending, a mistake he’d never make again. Neither his brother nor nephew had told him about how upset Ozai was over it but he was a smart man, he could put two and two together.    
  
“And what if we’re not?” Zuko said, not showing any emotions.  _ What do I care? _   
  
“You will be as long as you follow the right path.”   
  
“Dad doesn’t want me to marry a boy,” he looked away. 

  
“There’s nothing wrong with you or your tattoo. Your father will come around. Besides, it’s not set in stone your tattoo actually refers to a man,” Iroh smiled, reassuring the then-11 year old Zuko. “Maybe you’ll meet a fine lady one day who throws a boomerang at your head and it’ll be love at first sight!” it had been a joke to lighten the mood, but Zuko didn’t laugh. 

  
By the age of 16, Zuko had abandoned all hope of his soulmate being a woman. From personal experiences, the chance of it being a women were basically non-existent. He wondered if this also played as a reason in his banishment. He knew his father wasn’t proud of him, or his tattoo, but that didn’t mean Zuko would actually  _ act  _ on it. If marrying a woman is what it took to be able to go back home, then he would. But it wasn’t going to be that easy.    
  


Standing on the deck of his ship now, years later, Zuko thought back to when he was 11. He had been feeding the turtle ducks alone, his mother was somewhere he didn’t know. Suddenly, he got a faint heartache, like someone important had died, but not necessarily someone important to him. It had been such a weird experience as sadness flushed over him that he had felt lost, wanting to help whoever’s pain it was. Later his uncle told him that soulmates could sometimes very faintly feel each other's pain, so that whoever his soulmate was must be in extreme pain right now.  _ Soulmates only bring you pain _ , was what Zuko heard, even if those weren’t his uncle’s words. 

 

So now all he could hope was that he would find the Avatar, and wouldn’t find his soulmate. It was the only way to get back his honor. Enough people didn’t meet their soulmates until later in life, or didn’t meet them at all. If luck could just be on his side once-...

 

“The avatar!” He snapped up suddenly seeing a big light flash coming from somewhere behind a couple of icebergs. Maybe luck was on his side today. 

  
“It’s not the first time you’ve said that, prince Zuko,” his uncle sighed.    
  
“I have a good feeling about it this time.”   
  


Even visiting the most remote places during his search had been a good call on his part. 

  
~~   
  
He had finally arrived at the South Pole, knowing fully well the avatar was there. He had seen it with his own two eyes! Well, one eye through a telescope, but you get the idea. Victory was so close and he was going to do everything to not let it slip out of his hands. He was going to get the Avatar even if he had to burn, no  _ melt,  _ the whole village down in the process. The Avatar! Someone who hadn't been seen in 100 years!    
  
The first person he saw when walking off the ship was some crazy dude bolting towards him. Did he really think Zuko would be so easy to defeat? He probably wasn’t even a waterbender. As far as Zuko knew, there were none of those left on the South Pole.  _ Nothing to stand in my way _ . 

 

He had been expecting to be attacked and fought against, the fact that it was only one person was actually kind of laughable.  He easily threw him off, not even sparing a glance to the other.    
  
“Where is he?” he said angrily.    
  
“What?”    
  
“About this old?” He grabbed one of the oldest people he saw. “Master off all four elements?” He shook her before throwing her back into the hands of the villagers. Adrenaline pumping through his veins. 

  
Behind him he heard the other boy get up, bolting towards him once again.  _ At least he is courageous _ , he thought. But then the Water Tribe boy took out another weapon, something that looked awfully familiar to Zuko, even though he couldn’t quite place it. He threw said weapon but totally missed the prince in the progress. He didn’t have time to fight off this peasant and his dumb weapons! He couldn’t even manage to hit him!

  
Just as he wanted to go on, the other suddenly attacked him again, with a spear this time. A+ for creativity in weapons, he supposed, but no spear was going to stop him from getting his honor back.    
The thing quickly broken in two, and he now fully turned his attention towards the boy who couldn’t be much younger than him, maybe a year. He felt weird, as if he had recognised him or as if he was an old friend. Zuko almost felt sympathy, something he hadn’t had felt in a long while. What was going on with him? For a second he didn’t want to hurt the other anymore. 

 

And then he got hit on the head. Did he miss a sneak attack by having his attention turned towards that boy? This is what happens when you lose focus for even just a second! He scolded himself for being so careless, until he saw something in front of him in the snow.    
  
The realisation that it wasn’t a sneak attack that he had missed but just got hit by a boomerang relieved him for just a second, before totally tensing up. _ A boomerang.  _

  
The Water Tribe boy looked at him for a split second as well. There was some kind of mutual understanding. They both knew the other realized they were soulmates, and both seemed to be happy to totally ignore that fact. Like the both of them held an entire conversation with their eyes in the span of half a second. 

 

Not only did he meet his soulmate, something he very much didn’t want, he met him at the exact worst possible timing ever. Because of course he did, luck was  _ never  _ on his side. Zuko felt like a fool for even thinking so.    
  
Now he felt completely torn. His uncle had told him about this “great force that even without seeing the tattoo, you will know it’s them” and almost “immediate fondness” and he hadn’t believed a word of it. He wasn’t that kind of person, he couldn’t just ‘love’ someone without knowing them, leave alone after seeing them for the first time. But he did somewhat feel it. It wasn’t love, but it certainly was  _ something _ . It just made him more angry.

 

Almost ready to attack the other boy, throwing every good story he had ever heard about soulmates (most of them from his uncle) out of the window, something suddenly hit his lower legs, resulting into him flying backwards, face-first into the snow. He had greater things than love to worry about now. The Avatar was back. His focus shifted immediately back to the reason he was here in the first place.    
  
~~    
  
“If I go with you, will you leave all these people alone?”    
  
Zuko looked around at the other people, who were scaredly watching the battle between the two. His eyes fell on someone in the process. 

 

“No, I want him as well,” he pointed at the boy with the boomerang, his  _ soulmate.  _ Zuko knew fully well it was stupid, that it would mess up his plan, that he didn’t even want to meet his soulmate in the first place and that his soulmate certainly would hate him after this whole thing. But curiosity killed the catgator as they say. Two of the guards stepped forwards towards the avatar, and two others towards the boy.    
  
“What do you want from me?” Boomerang guy crossed his arms. “I won’t be a threat to your precious Fire Nation, don’t worry.”   
  
“What’s your name?” Zuko said a bit softer.    
  
“You really think I’ll tell you that? No, thanks!” he rolled his eyes. The other villagers looked at the two in confusion.   
  
“You will, and you will come with me as well whether you want it or not.” This time it sounded more stern, more sure, more like him.    
  
The Avatar looked like he was ready to start fighting again, protecting his newly made friends. Zuko knew how stupid he was being, and he definitely wasn’t leaving a good impression on his soulmate that he, again, very much didn’t want to begin with.Why was he acting like this?     
  
“Aang, stop,” boomerang guy sighed. “Okay fine, I’ll go with you. But you better leave my people alone.”   
  
Zuko nodded. He didn’t want anything from these people anyway.    
  
“Sokka have you gone mad?!” An angry voice suddenly was heard from the crowd. Sokka, hu? Guess he got to know his name after all.    
  
“Katara listen, I know what I’m doing. It will all be fine!”   
  
There was a certain resemblance between the two, and Zuko guessed they probably were siblings. At least he was hoping it wasn’t Sokka’s girlfriend. Not that he’d care of course. But still.    
  
“Take me with you, too.” Katara turned towards him and before Zuko could even reply a no, the avatar chimed in as well.    
  
“Uhh, if Sokka and Katara and I go with you, can my flying bison as well? There’s no one to take care of him otherwise.”    
  
Were they being serious? Did they see this as some kind of joke? 

 

“No! You and you, you’re coming with me,” he pointed at Aang and Sokka. “No one else. My ship isn’t some kind of daycare for bisons and teenage girls! This is a war ship! And I’m going back home.”

 

What even was a flying bison? He wasn’t planning on finding out.    
  
He signed at the guards who took Aang and Sokka captured, leaving the rest behind. Katara didn’t struggle anymore, but she was clearly holding back tears, holding the older woman who Zuko had grabbed a couple of minutes ago. She probably knew about the soulmate status of her brother and him, and he didn’t know if that made it worse or better. He definitely didn’t leave a good impression on the family as a whole. Besides, Katara looked pretty scary. 

 

~~

 

After sending Aang away with the guards to his cell, he decided it was time to go talk to his  _ soulmate _ . Zuko already heavily regretted taking him with in the first place, knowing he’d neither wanted to act on it but also that his soulmate most probably hated him. He tried not to think of how the other, _ Sokka _ , was kinda very handsome and how he had definitely felt… something. ‘Sokka’ he repeated in his mind. That’s what he guessed his name was at least from the previous conversation. It was a good name.  _ Sounds bright red,  _ his synesthesia chimed in, _ fits with mine then _ . He tried to not think about the fact that his dumb brain had automatically linked the others name to his favourite color. 

 

He stood in front of the room he had sent Sokka to and took a deep breath before entering. This conversation was gonna happen sometime, the longer he waited the more awkward it became. And it certainly was already awkward enough as it was. 

 

“Hey, I-“ he started but the other cut him off straight away, clearly very upset about the whole thing. And rightfully so. 

 

“Listen here you jerk,” Sokka started, “I don’t know what your plan is but you best believe me when I say I want nothing to do with you. Soulmate or not.” He had stood up and walked closer, confidently, to make his point more clear. He didn’t show any signs of fear, even now he had seen the other firebending and everything.

 

“That’s fine.” Zuko replied simply. What else could he say? 

 

“Then why did you bring me here?” The other crossed his arms. 

 

Finally being able to take a look at the other, Zuko had to admit to himself Sokka was definitely very beautiful, which made the whole thing even more unfair.  _ Fuck that, Sokka is hot! _ a tiny voice inside his mind said which he internally kicked himself for. He couldn’t allow that train of thought to go any further. 

 

Zuko sighed. “Actually, I don’t know,” he confessed. 

 

“Oh! Great! Well done _ Prince Zuko _ ! You really thought this through, didn’t you?” He said sharply. “Can’t wait till you bring me to the fire nation, far away from home, locked up in a prison. Certainly a great way to treat your soulmate, whether you want to act on it or not.”

 

“I didn’t exactly have a lot of time to think this through, I came here for the Avatar only! How was I supposed to know I’d meet you?” Zuko defended himself, “and I’m not gonna throw you in a prison!” 

 

The other clearly wasn’t having any of it. “Then what are you going to do? Let me ‘free’ once we’re in the Fire Nation? I don’t know anyone there! I highly doubt there’s some public transport that can bring me back to the South Pole.”

 

“I didn’t… really think about that,” Zuko hated how he felt. He finally found the avatar and now he had to deal with this? But at the same time, something within him just couldn’t ignore the fact that he had found his soulmate either. It was somewhat exciting. The universe really must be playing some cruel joke on him. What did he do to deserve all this? 

 

“No, you didn’t. You didn’t think about any of this because you only care about yourself! I can’t believe you are my soulmate!” Sokka threw his arms up in the air, almost as if he didn’t know what else to do anymore. 

 

Zuko had to do everything to keep his calm now. This whole conversation was upsetting but he doubted throwing a fireball at the other was going to make it any better. 

 

“I just-... wanna see my tattoo. Well, your tattoo,” he said more quietly. He really did though. What would the universe have chosen for his tattoo? What was his clear trait that had made Sokka realize they were soulmates pretty much straight away? Was it the logo of the Fire Nation? That would probably be too vague. Maybe it was something like the hairpiece he wore as crown prince. Or maybe it was the helmet he was wearing, but that would’ve probably been too vague too. 

 

Sokka seemed to think about it for a second, before finally saying “fine!” And rolling his sleeve up. 

 

Zuko wasn’t exactly impressed with what he saw. If anything, it was just a painful reminder of his life and why he was on this trip in the first place. Right on Sokka’s left bicep was tattoo that looked identical to the scar that covered half of the left side of his face. To make matters worse, it was about the same size as well. It barely looked like a tattoo anymore, it was so realistic it could probably even pass for a burn wound. 

 

“I see…” Zuko turned around stepped forwards towards the door almost ready to leave, balled his fists and closed his eyes. He was so close to having an outburst, anger running through his veins. After a couple of seconds he realized Sokka would probably think he’s insane (as if he didn’t already) to be so upset over something like this. 

 

He couldn’t leave now, so after a couple more breaths he turned back around. Awkwardly trying to smile in an attempt to make it seem like wasn’t extremely angry. 

 

A few moments of very awkward silence later, the other spoke up.

 

“It’s not exactly fun to have a tattoo that looks like a scar, you know?” Sokka said accusingly. 

 

“It’s not exactly fun to have a scar that looks like a scar either!” Zuko said raising his voice now and pointed his finger to his face. Sokka snorted, which wasn’t really the reaction he had hoped for, but he guessed it had sound pretty dumb. 

 

“Can I-“ Sokka moved his hands forwards, reaching for Zuko’s face.  _ Don’t let him!  _ Zuko felt himself slap Sokka’s hand away before he could come anywhere close.  _ Don’t let down your barriers, _ he told himself. 

 

“No!” He hissed. “You can’t touch it!” 

 

“Well, can I see mine then at least?” Sokka then said sounding a bit hurt but not pressing on the subject, rolling his sleeve back down and crossing his arm again. 

 

Having really no other choice, Sokka had showed him his after all, he lifted up his shirt just enough to see the medium-sized boomerang on his ribcage on the right size of his body. At least his tattoo wasn’t livesized, and pretty easy to cover up. 

 

“Okay now that, is pretty cool I must admit,” Sokka smiled proudly at himself, as if he had drawn the tattoo on there  himself. 

 

The prince rolled his eyes. “If you think so.”

 

“Listen here buddy, a boomerang is the best weapon! You’d be stupid not to use a boomerang as weapon of choice!” He defended himself. 

 

“If it’s that widely used by everyone, it wouldn’t have been my tattoo. In fact, so little people must use one, the universe must have thought it was pretty unique to you only.” what even was this conversation? 

 

“But you see, mine is blue and very clearly belongs to my tribe. Just because I’m the only one in my tribe to use it, doesn’t mean I’m the only one in the world!”

 

Zuko wanted to reply, have this petty discussion about boomerangs of all things. He didn’t know why, he normally wouldn’t bother,  but he just did. But something had to ruin it of course. 

 

“Hello! Have you seen my-“ the door swung open, both Sokka and Zuko snapped their heads towards the sound, only to see the Avatar in the doorframe. He had escaped? Why were the people in this ship so useless? They couldn’t even keep hold of a 12 year old? He really had to do everything himself, didn’t he? 

 

“AANG!” Sokka had excitedly yelled, throwing his arms up walking towards the other. 

 

He had to stop this before they both were gone. 

 

~~ 

 

Okay so, the “stopping this before they both were gone” didn’t exactly work out for Zuko, who now stood on the deck of his ship watching both the avatar and Sokka fly away on some… flying bison monster thing. Probably the one Aang had referred to before. 

 

“I won’t underestimate him again,” he told his uncle determined. 

 

“Which one of the two?” 

 

“The Avatar of course!” it was him who had escaped the guards in the first place. 

 

“And what are you gonna do about your soulmate?” 

 

“What?” How did he know? He knew for a fact he didn’t tell his uncle yet. He didn’t even know if he was planning to. It would probably only result in a ‘ _ follow your heart _ ’ speech that Zuko definitely did not need whatsoever.  

 

“He’s your soulmate isn’t he?” His uncle seemed already sure of it though. 

 

No point in denying really. “How did you know?”

 

Iroh sighed. “I saw you got hit by a boomerang. It’s not exactly everyday you find a guy using a boomerang as serious weapon.”

 

“I told him that as well!” He crossed his arms in annoyance. See!  _ Who even uses a boomerang?! _

 

“So what will you do?” His uncle asked. 

 

“About him? Nothing. About the Avatar? Hunt him down again,” that, he was sure of. 

 

“You’re not going after your soulmate? Don’t you want to find out about true love?” Iroh seemed a bit phased by this. Who wouldn’t like to know their soulmate?

 

Zuko wasn’t having it though. “My honor is more important than true love,” he said full confidence, walking towards his room, not wanting to talk about it anymore. 

 

But he also knew that, considering the whole escape a couple of minutes ago, hunting down the Avatar would bring him to his soulmate too. 

 

~~

 

_ SOKKA _

 

“Sokka, are you okay?” his sister asked worryingly as soon as the ship was out of view. 

 

Sokka was going to need a minute to process this all. Why did the universe hate him this much? What had he done to deserve this? 

 

“Honestly Katara, we just talked. I think that’d be a better question for Aang, I don’t know what they did with him.”

 

Aang shrugged, “I escaped pretty much straight away.”

 

Katara ignored it though. “Just talked? The audacity he has! Just-.. captures you like this and-... TALKS with you as if nothing happened and I-”

 

“What did you guys talk about?” Aang cut her off, curiosity getting the best of him.   
  
Sokka thought if he even should tell Aang about it for a second. On one hand, Aang could think he was a traitor now who wanted to turn him in to his ‘new love’ from the Fire Nation. On the other hand, Aang wasn’t so stupid to believe such a thing. Hopefully. Which is why he eventually said, “Listen Aang, that jerk and I, we’re kinda soulmates I guess?”

 

Aang didn’t even seemed phased by this. In fact, he looked rather excited. “You are? That’s amazing!”

 

Both siblings gaped at him, before Katara could yell “In what world is that amazing?! Didn’t you see what he just did? He wants you dead, Aang!”

 

“Maybe he’ll come around now he has found Sokka?” he sounded hopeful. 

 

“I highly doubt it. And even if he did, I want nothing to do with him,” Sokka said. 

 

“I always heard that soulmates were something special. Like you have a really special bound that you can feel right away. The monks told me an avatar never gets a soulmate mark though,” he looked sad, “but they also said that doesn’t necessarily mean I won’t find love!”

 

“Aang, don’t worry about it. I don’t have a soulmark either,” Katara comforted him. After what had just happened with her brother, he was sure she wasn’t in the slightest as upset about it anymore as she had been as a child. 

 

“You think Zuko is going to throw is whole life away because of a tattoo? I don’t think so! The jerk,” Sokka said angrily, crossing his arms again and looking away. 

 

As much as Katara very much didn’t want to talk about this, she couldn’t help but ask, “so? Did you feel something special?”

 

“I’m not sure…” and he wasn’t. Not really. A lot had happened in those couple of minutes. He had felt something weird and vague from the moment Zuko walked out of his ship, but he had also felt hatred and annoyance towards the boy at the same time. The weird feeling was probably just because Zuko looked pretty damn fine sadly enough, and he was a teenage boy with eyes and hormones and all, if he could look past the fact that he was literally _the_ _Prince of the Fire nation_ , which he couldn’t so it really didn’t matter. “I hate him either way.”

 

He thought of reasons to stop thinking Zuko was even mildly attractive, he had to kill these thought straight away.  _ His hair looks stupid _ , was his first idea, before another part of his brain chimed in with  _ but on him it looks kinda cool. Urg.  _ Okay so,  _ his scar is pretty ugly, I guess _ but not even that thought was fully finished before his brain replied  _ but also pretty sexy _ . This really was the worst thing ever. Couldn’t he have just been born without a soulmate? 

 

Katara nodded, but Aang still didn’t seem too sure about it. “You don’t need to hate him because of me! What if he’s your true love? In fact, he definitely is your true love! According to the universe and all!”

 

“Aang do you hear yourself speaking? True love? He’s the Fire Nation prince! He’s going to hunt you, no us, down! There is no way.” before mumbling “stupid scar,” because his mind was still stuck on that ‘Zuko’s scar is sexy’ thought. 

 

“Maybe we can use you as bait to-”

 

“KATARA!”

 

They fell silent after that. 

  
Sokka remembered when he was 12 and his tattoo suddenly started to faint burn. He didn’t know why, and it had freaked him out at the time. It had hurt for a while after, but not enough to actually tell someone about it.  _ That’s when Zuko got his scar, _ he realized. Now hyperaware, his tattoo started feeling itchy. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quite a big time skip in this one so just to be clear, Sokka’s part is set after the Warriors Of Kyoshi and Zuko’s is set after The Storm ^^

_ SOKKA _

 

It had been a crazy couple of days, so much so Sokka had  _ almost  _ forgotten about the whole soulmate ordeal. From the air temple to Kyoshi island to fighting Zuko AGAIN. 

 

“So, you and Suki, hu?” his sister cocked an eyebrow once they left the burning island behind. 

 

Katara wasn’t blind, it was pretty obvious something was growing between her brother and Suki, Sokka wasn’t exactly the most subtle person on this planet. 

 

“What about it?” Sokka replied casually. “It’s not because you have a soulmate you can’t like anyone else.” 

 

Sokka did genuinely like Suki, but he couldn’t lie to himself over the fact that it definitely felt a lot different to be around Suki than to be around Zuko. It was very hard to explain his feelings, he barely understood them himself after all. 

 

He wondered what it would be like to be soulmates with Suki. Things would be a lot easier, that’s for sure. Staying on the island wasn’t really a possibility, but at least Suki didn’t make it her life mission to capture one of his friends. And at least Suki wasn’t a bad person as far as he knew. 

 

Being attracted even more towards Suki definitely sounded nice, much better than his dumb attraction towards Zuko’s _ stupid ponytail _ and  _ stupid scar _ . Yea, he had admitted to himself he was definitely attracted to Zuko in a sexual way, much to his disliking, but at least he was relieved he also could still get attracted to other people. At least he had that going for him. Sokka wasn’t exactly on planning to live like a monk for the the rest of his life, no offence to Aang of course. 

 

_ Soulmates are weird _ , he decided. And the universe hated him, but what’s new. 

 

“I’m worried you might be using her as some sort of cover up,” Katara said then. 

 

“I can’t believe you think that low of me! Of course I’m not using her! Barely anything happened anyway.” And it hadn’t. A mere kiss on the cheek wasn’t exactly a big deal, even if it somewhat was a big deal for him. There weren’t a lot of kids his age at the South Pole, none to be exact, and this was the first time this happened to him. Katara didn’t have to know that. 

 

She didn’t seem too sure, and kept going. “I just don’t want either of you to get hurt!”

 

“So what are you expecting me to do? Elope with Zuko? Yea, not gonna happen!” He knew it was dumb. Of course Katara didn’t want him to elope with Zuko. In fact, he was pretty sure she’d rather drown than let that happen, but what else was he supposed to do? 

 

“Urg, of course I don’t want that! Aang, what do you think about it?” She turned to him, looking pretty upset. 

 

Aang of course, not wanting Katara to hate him, agreed with her and then tried to escape the conversation by turning his full attention back to making sure they didn’t fly into anything. 

 

“You’re just having problems with your… hormones!” Katara argued, clearly looking uncomfortable about the subject.  

 

Yea he was having problems alright, he was a 15 year old! What is she expecting? Still, not exactly a topic he wanted to discuss with his sister or Aang. At all. 

 

“Just drop it, Katara. It doesn’t matter now, I’m probably never seeing Suki again either way!” 

 

To his surprise, she did drop it. 

 

~~

 

When he was alone that night, he couldn’t help but look at his tattoo again, tracing it with his fingers as he went along the outline of it. All these years he had thought his soulmate would be someone like him, who was hurt because of the Fire Nation. Someone whose home had been invaded, maybe even had tried to stand up against it all. Someone brave. 

 

Sokka wondered how Zuko had gotten the burn in the first place.  _ Probably because of his own stupid bending _ , he thought.  _ Fire is dangerous _ .  _ Firebenders should know better.  _

 

Or maybe because of someone else, because Zuko clearly didn’t seem like the type to just stop a fight with peace once one began. 

 

But Zuko had been young when he had gotten the scar. Sokka assumed the other to be about a year older than him, and he had felt his tattoo burn when he was 12. No one would attack a 13 year old, right? Especially not when said 13 year old is the prince, surely. 

 

Maybe the people in the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom knew more about it. There must have been rumours at least, but those never reached the South Pole, and he doubted they’d reach the North Pole either. Maybe one day he could ask when they’d look for an earthbending or firebending master for Aang. Or when he’d have another conversation with Zuko. 

 

Sokka quickly shook that thought out of his head. No. He couldn’t ask because they were never ever going to get to the point where they were in a position to friendly talk about each other’s lives.  _ Stupid Zuko.  _

 

~~

 

_ ZUKO _

 

Saying Zuko was having a rough time was an understatement to say the least. 

 

The Avatar was seen for the first time in a hundred years, and he had been one of the first to see him,  _ and  _ he turned out to be a little kid AND… he couldn’t catch him. The universe really must be playing a cruel joke on him for him not even being able to catch a 12 year old who didn’t even seem to have mastered any of the elements except for airbending yet. 

 

He had let the Avatar go due to the storm, which he was pretty pissed about, but he also knew it was the only way to not let everyone on his ship die. 

 

The crew had been acting weirdly since a bit before the storm, and he wasn’t sure why. It was almost as if they were having more empathy. Well, he  _ did _ save them, he guessed. 

 

_ I hope Sokka is okay, flying in that storm like that.  _ Why wouldn’t he be okay? He’s with the Avatar. Zuko couldn’t think of a safer person to be with. Except for the fact that Zuko was always hunting him down and putting his life in danger, but that’s not the point. 

 

He laid with his face in his pillow, groaning about how stupid this all was. 

 

He wondered what his soulmate was doing now _. _ It was a dumb thing and he knew it fully well. Ever since meeting him, he had done his very best to not even go anywhere near the concept of Sokka or soulmates or anything in that direction.  _ Who needs a soulmate? Not me! _ Or at least, that’s what he’s been telling himself for the last couple of years. It was a dangerous subject to think about, really. But not thinking about it was kinda hard when he was just always there, tagging along with the person he was literally trying to capture. And Sokka was really way too handsome not to notice which was just  _ unfair.  _

 

Sokka definitely didn’t seem like he was losing sleep over this whole thing. Any time they saw each other the both of them pretty much pretended to not know the other at all. Sokka had even set up the pirates against him, which was a shitty thing to do but in hindsight, he couldn’t really blame him. But he was still pissed about it of course. 

 

Zuko sometimes wondered if Sokka had been surprised his soulmate was a boy. He had known for a fact his would be, but maybe Sokka didn’t? There didn’t exactly seem to have been a lot of men his age at the South Pole…

 

_ Am I too ugly for Sokka? It it the scar? _ This was also a dangerous thought. He used to not care about his appearance at all, but it sometimes got hard when all people could look at was the giant scar on his face.  _ How does Sokka think I got the scar? I bet he thinks its from carelessness around fire. I bet he thinks I deserve it. I do deserve it.  _

 

One thing Zuko definitely felt guilty about though was said tattoo. It maybe wasn’t exactly on Sokka’s face, but it still looked like an ugly burn wound rather than a soulmate mark. He wondered what Sokka had been expecting. Probably not an actual firebender, that’s for sure. For Zuko, the scar was a reminder of his life and faults and problems. For Sokka, the tattoo was probably just something ugly he’d rather cover up at all times. 

 

_ The universe is cruel _ , he thought for the millionth time. Zuko knew better than to drown in self pity, he didn’t have time for it. But he was just so lost at the moment… 

 

He felt like he was suffocating and had to get this thought out his room right away. Get some fresh air or whatever they say. He really couldn’t be dealing with this right now. 

 

~~

 

Things didn’t get better once he was on deck however. In fact, they got worse. 

 

“Zhoa,” he murmured once he saw the other Fire Navy ships getting closer to land, still far enough away for the other not to spot him. Was the avatar here too? He had to get to the bottom of this. Zhao wouldn’t stop somewhere if he didn’t think it was necessary. 

 

“Looks like Zhao is coming,” he  almost jumped when he heard his uncle’s voice, totally startled.

 

He had to do something quickly. “I’m going back to my room. Do NOT come look for me tonight. I’m going to bed.”

 

Both him and his uncle knew that was not the case, he didn’t even know why he bothered to tell the lie, but his uncle didn’t say anything so he rushed to his room, and took a mask from under his bed.   _ Zhao can’t know I’m here _ . Grabbing his swords, he rushed out of the room and from the ship, at least trying to be somewhat subtle while doing so. His uncle might have known it was lying, but that didn’t mean the crew needed to know too. No questions needed to be raised. 

 

He followed Zhao for way too long in his opinion, but at least being sneaky and following people was one of Zuko’s talents, if he said so himself. Still, it was dangerous like this.

  
  


~~

 

Zuko hadn’t meant to be eavesdropping. Okay, maybe only a little. Okay no, maybe it was definitely the plan in the first place. Either way, Zhao was an admiral now.  _ How can I ever stop him? _

 

His life was just getting worse with the minute. 

 

He had to get back to the ship. 

 

~~

 

When a big Fire Navy ship later overshadowed his, both his uncle and him pretended to not know who it was, his uncle going on about that game he was playing. Zhao's men really had to come and barge in and ruin his plans just as he was discussing with Jee what route to go. 

 

Zuko had known the news already about Zhao's promotion, but him now being in charge of the Avatar, it still made his blood boil. Now it just felt even more real.  _ I will be the first one to find Sokka- uhmm Aang. Yes. The Avatar only.  _

 

To hell with giving Zhao some information he needed. 

 

~~

 

Zhao had captured the Avatar, he was sure of it. Every vein in his body told him so. Zuko doesn’t know when he had gotten this skill, but he knew he had to follow Zhao to wherever they took the avatar. 

He had no other choice, he had to save the Avatar. In favour of capturing him himself, of course. 

 

He was nervous, but at the same time the adrenaline of it all gave him more strength to carry through with his plan. The Avatar would be his today. He let himself feel a tiny bit hopeful.  _ Ha, take that, Zhao.  _

 

~~

 

Zuko was so confused when he woke up with a massive headache.  _ Where am I?  _ He definitely wasn’t in the ship. It took him a solid minute to realize where he was and how he had gotten there. He had saved the Avatar and in return the Avatar had saved him even after knowing it was Zuko all along. Why, Zuko truly didn’t know. Maybe the Avatar was genuinely a good person. Or maybe he had only found out his identity after he had already saved him. That would make things worse though. Zuko was glad he lost most of his sympathy for others years ago, especially for the Avatar. 

 

It took him another few seconds to realize Aang was in fact talking to him. He looked so young sitting there with his knees to his chest. And he was, but at the same time very much not. 12 or 112, it depends on how you look at it. Zuko decided to view him as a 112 year old, that made things easier at least. Again, not that he had any sympathy of course. 

 

“Do you think we could’ve been friends, too? You don’t need to do this, you know? Sokka would-“ and that’s what did it. The mere mention of his soulmate was enough for Zuko to totally snap out of it and attack the Avatar like it should’ve been in the first place. A ball of fire flew in the kid’s direction. He knew nothing about Zuko’s life! Who did he think he was?  _ You don’t need to do this, you know?  _ But he did. He very much needed to do this, that was the only thing in his life that he was certain about. 

 

The fireball was a dumb move of course because Zuko still laid there in pain with a headache while Aang could get away in seconds with his airbending. The Avatar should’ve fought back, that was the plan, but he hadn’t.  _ Dumb dumb dumb _ he chanted in his head and groaned. 

 

_ I wouldn’t have won in this state anyway _ , he would later admit to himself. 

 

Uncle would be worried by now, but he couldn’t honestly bring himself to care. His uncle would figure it out, play some more Pai Sho with other crew member and make tea and have his fun music nights with the crew like they always did because truth was, the crew was probably more happy not having Zuko onboard anyway. 

 

Zuko knew fully well the crew probably wanted to go back home as much as he did.  _ Well, they should make more of an effort in helping me then.  _

 

He propped himself up on his elbows, ignoring his massive headache. Only now he was fully aware of his surroundings, or rather, fully aware of the fact that he very much didn’t know where he was. His headache could wait. He had to rush back to the ship anyway, at least now he had a better clue of where the Avatar was. 

 

~~

 

Hours later, he had finally somehow managed to reach his ship. 

 

He had almost reached his room in peace until he found his uncle down in the hallway. Great, he couldn’t even have this. Thanks universe. 

 

“Nephew! You were gone for so long! What happened?”

 

“I don’t wanna talk about it!”

 

The door flew closed with a bang. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not my best chapter I’ll admit, but the 3rd should be out soon. I’ve got everything prewritten but it still needs a lot of editing, but it’ll be posted by thursday in the worst case ^^


	3. Chapter 3

_ Sokka _

 

Next time Sokka met Zuko something must have really snapped in them because suddenly the two were all over each other, deeply kissing, aggressively groping each other like their life depended on it. 

 

Okay, rewind. 

 

Sokka didn’t know how it had happened, really, he didn’t! He was just walking alone in the woods, trying to hunt for some meat or something at least, when he ran into Zuko, who had also been alone. 

 

Zuko, of course, is known for being a straight-to-the-point guy. “Where is he?” He said angrily.  _ Zuko’s hair looks soft today.  _ Wow wait, where was this coming from?

 

“What, you’re not here to see me? I’m offended, Prince  _ Zuko _ ” he crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow. If he was gonna have this conversation, at least he could have some fun with it. Winding up Zuko was pretty funny.  _ He’s kinda hot when he’s angry.  _

 

Zuko raised his voice, looking ready to fight like always. “Where is he?” 

 

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he is your soulmate instead of me!” Sokka sounded more angry than he wanted it to sound. He wasn’t  _ jealous _ of Aang or something, that’d be crazy. He was just trying to poke fun at Zuko. Why his voice came out like that, he didn’t know. 

 

It was however getting Zuko worked up and annoyed, which was exactly the plan, until Zuko practically attacked him, pinning him against one of the nearby trees. Everything suddenly happened so fast, Sokka’s mind barely could keep up. They were close, way too close and Sokka felt a weird sense of heat which he couldn’t describe in any other way than the universe hating him even more than he already thought it did.  _ This is not the time for this.  _ He wasn’t sure whether Zuko feeling the same or not would make the whole situation even worse. 

 

Zuko however, did seem to be about as distracted as he was because before he knew it, Sokka kicked him in the knee ( _ I really should’ve kicked him in the balls _ Sokka decided  _ but I’m not that big of an asshole, even if he deserves it) _ , grabbed his wrists in the moment of confusion, flipped their positions around and pinned him against that same tree. 

 

Zuko’s body now fully pressed between his and the tree, their faces way too close to each other once again. Really, he should’ve seen it coming at this point. “Aha! Think you can pin me down?” Sokka grinned but it didn’t last long. 

 

And just as the two looked in each others eyes something in Sokka’s brain must have shortwired because he couldn’t tell who leaned in first, all he knew is that their lips were definitely pressed against each other and neither he nor Zuko seemed to remotely even care at the sudden change of this encounter. 

 

He swore, fucking sparks flew around the second their lips touched each other’s and he didn’t know wether this happened when firebenders kiss or because of the whole soulmate thing but, hotdamn. It was  _ addicting.  _

 

_ Stupid hormones! “ _ Fuck,” Sokka let go of his wrists, still firmly pushing the other against the tree with his body, in favour of grabbing Zuko’s face with his two hands. He deepened the kiss because spirits, they were too far gone now anyway, and Zuko made these tiny noises as he melted into Sokka that were literally so fucking hot and it wasn’t fair! 

 

The whole ordeal would’ve been awkward if it wasn’t for the sparks that Sokka kept seeing every time he closed his eyes and every time Zuko’s breath hitched. 

 

He didn’t have any experience kissing, and neither did Zuko most likely, but if it was gonna be like that all the time, there were very few things he’d rather do than this. Zuko’s lips and tongue were so hot against his, and so was his skin, which was most definitely probably a firebender thing and Sokka hated it but he was very much into it. 

 

Zuko wrapped his arms around Sokka’s body which was definitely a bit awkward, especially because of his stupid Fire Nation uniform with the big shoulder pads that didn’t only look terrible but were also incredibly annoying when kissing, and the both of them definitely didn’t know what they were doing bit he truly didn’t care anymore in that moment. 

 

“Fuck,” he repeated and pulled away for a second only to start kissing and sucking the skin of Zuko’s neck because it just seemed  _ the right thing to do _ which pretty much seemed to be driving Zuko insane because he was almost full-on moaning which, Sokka definitely did pat himself on the back for.  “This is such a bad idea” Sokka said between kisses and the other made a kind-of-agreeing-kind-of-moaning noise. 

 

“I don’t care,” the other said after a while, and he couldn’t tell whether he meant it or not but they were too far gone now. Zuko wrapped his legs around Sokka’s waist and then grabbed his face back towards his to start kissing again. 

 

Their position, the kissing,  _ Zuko’s moaning _ ,... Sokka’s 15-year old brain couldn’t handle this anymore. 

 

So, he rolled his hips against the other, knowing fully well he was getting a hard-on already which would be really embarrassing if he didn’t know, no  _ feel _ , Zuko had one too so he took it as an encouragement to keep going.  _ The Prince of the Fire Nation is hard because of me.  _ Now that’s a thought he never thought he’d think. 

 

“Fuck, Sokka-” Zuko made a small a choking noise, hands gripping Sokka’s hair. 

 

Sokka had managed to get Zuko’s hair undone and pulled it slightly, which Zuko also very much seemed into and Zuko’s mouth was just so hot. Everything was just so hot. 

 

Sokka had been right, Zuko’s hair was very soft and nice to run his hands through. At this moment however, it was one of the last things on his mind. Their noses bumped and there was probably a bit too much saliva involved but this was his first kiss, most likely Zuko’s first kiss as well, and  _ damn.  _

 

It really felt like there was some kind of magnetic force pushing them together even more, even if Sokka couldn’t physically push the other more up against the tree without crushing his ribs. 

 

“Fuck,” Sokka breathed between kisses, not being able to say anything more intelligent than that swear word over and over again. How long they had been there like this he didn’t know. 5, 10, 20 minutes maybe? Time seemed like it was flying and standing still at the exact same time and the only thing in his thoughts were  _ Zuko  _ and  _ Zuko’s mouth _ and if his uniform would have allowed it he would’ve put his hands under Zuko’s shirt by now but clearly these uniforms weren’t made for making out at all. Maybe that was for the best. But still, Sokka hated the Fire Nation and their  _ impractical uniforms.  _

 

After some time, probably way too long, at least one of them came to his senses though because suddenly Zuko slightly pushed him away by the shoulder, unwrapping his legs from around Sokka. “Wait, Sokka, this is really…” he breathed heavily as if he had just run a marathon. “A terrible terrible idea.” 

 

Finally, some common sense also started flooding back into Sokka’s head because he too, took a step back knowing fully well this was a one time thing that could absolutely never happen again. What the hell had he been thinking? “It is,” he finally confirmed. “A very terrible idea.” his breath was still heavier than he wanted it to be. 

 

They stood there for a second, looking at each other, not knowing what to say. Sokka’s pants were still uncomfortably tight though. This whole thing had turned really awkward really quickly. 

 

He looked at Zuko’s neck again, seeing a bruise form that was definitely his doing. “You uh-... your neck is bruised.” 

 

This was awkward.  _ Really  _ awkward. But Zuko had a right to know before he walked onto his ship with a big-ass bruise on his neck that pretty much spoke for itself. Maybe he could at least somehow cover it up now. Not that he didn’t deserve a bit of embarrassment, the jerk, but not this time. This embarrassment brought down Sokka too after all. 

 

He thought Zuko would get angry over the bruise though. H _ e should’ve stopped me in that moment if he really didn’t want it _ , he held that thought for himself. He braced himself for a bunch of fire to come his way out of rage. 

 

But Zuko simply nodded, trying to pull the collar of his uniform a bit higher (which wasn’t working). “This can never happen again,” he sounded alarmingly calm. 

 

“Never,” Sokka agreed. There was an instant pang of regret which was dumb because he knew it could never happen again and frankly, he felt a bit disgusted with himself for even sucking face like that with the enemy, but  _ fuck _ , that was… something. 

 

“Alright then, I’ll be-... going,” Zuko said awkwardly, clearly not in the mood anymore to ask where Aang was. He looked terrible. Not only the bruise, but his clothes looked like a mess and his lips were swollen and his hair was completely undone and Sokka couldn’t imagine he looked any better than that. 

 

“Yea uh, see you around I guess,” Sokka said and then facepalmed.  _ See you around?  _

 

He stood there for a second, looking at how Zuko left. 

 

Once the other was out of sight, Sokka groaned, hitting his forehead against the tree perhaps a bit too hard, but that wasn’t any of his problems for now. He couldn’t believe how stupid he was being! He should’ve kept himself under control! He had told Aang and Katara before something like this would never happen! 

 

He had to tell his sister and Aang, it would be too big of a secret to keep. They would never trust him again if they found out later, and they probably would because that would just be his luck. That was a terrifying thought to say the least. The last thing he wants to do is discuss some hot make out session with his sister and friends, leave alone one with  _ Zuko _ . Stupid hormones. Katara was going to kill him, in the best case scenario. 

 

~~

 

The whole way back Sokka had been thinking about a good way to tell them. He came to the conclusion that there really was no good way to tell them.  _ Hello, yes I ran into Zuko but hey, I found the perfect technique to get rid of him again! _

 

He couldn’t believe how stupid he had been! At least he wasn’t being stupid alone because Zuko seemed to be into it as much as he was but still, Zuko was always stupid so that barely counted. 

 

This soulmate thing really wasn’t fair at all. Why couldn’t he just have been born without a tattoo? That would’ve made his life so much easier! There really had been some kind of magnetic force from the universe pushing them together, there was no other explanation. 

 

The universe had no business deciding his love life for him like this. What did the universe know about his life in general anyway? Exactly, nothing!

 

~~

 

“What happened to you?” Katara said as soon as he returned. “It looks like you either got chased by a platypusbear or had a hot make-out session in the woods!” She said it as a joke obviously, but he didn’t think it would be that obvious. Fuck, he was so stupid. 

 

Aang turned his attention to him now as well. 

 

“Well…” he started while looking at the ground. His cheeks were glowing hot and he knew it.  _ Zuko and me are dumbasses.  _

 

Katara knew where this was going right away just from his reaction. “Sokka, you didn’t! Who? HOW? You were just gone to the woods I-“ she threw up her hands in disbelieve. 

 

“I uh… ran into Zuko,” there it was. He was pretty sure he was bright red by now. If only the ground could swallow him whole… 

 

_ I ran into Zuko _ was absolutely the worst way to tell her that ever. But what else could he say?

 

“SOKKA!” Katara yelled in an instant throwing up her arms even more before crossing them. “I literally cannot believe this,” he had never seen her so angry in his life, which was saying a lot, but he also couldn’t blame her at all. He’d be upset if she came back from the woods proclaiming she’d been kissing Zuko. For multiple reasons. 

 

Aang didn’t seem to fully get it though. “Didn’t he want to know where I was? Did he fight you?” He said with big eyes. The innocence...

 

Before Sokka could even reply that, no, they both did something much more stupid and he wished it had just been a fight, Katara cut in, “yea, Zuko attacked him with his mouth apparently!” 

 

“Oh” Aang’s eyes grew even wider, but Katara wasn’t finished. “Sokka I can’t believe this! I didn’t think you’d be  **this** stupid! How could you? You realize he wants Aang dead right? You don’t even know the guy! You brought us all in danger-”

 

“Katara-“ Aang tried. 

 

“You put us all in danger because you can’t keep your hormones under control!” She angrily pointed her finger into Sokka’s chest. “Did you even stop to think for a moment that, maybe, just maybe, making out with him is a terrible terrible idea?”

 

“Katara-“ 

 

“You’re so selfish! I can’t believe you did this I-“

 

“KATARA!” Aang yelled, which left both of the siblings turn their heads towards him straight away pretty much in shock. “Is it really that big of a deal?” 

 

“WHAT?” Both of them said simultaneously. Seriously, Sokka really didn’t get this kid sometimes. Scratch that, he didn’t get this kid most of the time. 

 

“He’s your soulmate right? Isn’t that kinda… what soulmates do?” Aang shifted uncomfortably. “Maybe not-... like that straight away but like-...”

 

“Not when one of them tries to kill your friend! I can’t believe the BOTH of you are this stupid!” She threw her arms in the air again in an attempt to make her point even more clear, or maybe to show that she was  _ really  _ angry about this. “Aang, I really was expecting better from you!”

 

Katara turned her back to them, angrily crossing her arms and sulking. Sokka looked at Aang, who still just looked confused. Maybe he should just drop it? He said what he said, right? But shutting up isn’t exactly his strong point. 

 

Sokka finally spoke up too. “Listen, I knew it was a bad idea but it just suddenly happened there was this-“

 

Katara rolled her eyes. “Yea yea, there was this  _ great feeling that just pulled you two together because soulmates and blah blah blah _ , save it Sokka. I don’t want to hear it. This better never happens again!” 

 

She didn’t even want to listen to him! Now it was Sokka’s turn to angrily fold his arms.“Don’t worry, we agreed we wouldn’t-“

 

“Oh so now you have an  _ agreement _ with  _ Prince Zuko _ ? I see how it is.”

 

Well what did she want then? Wasn’t it a good thing they agreed on never doing it again? Sokka wanted to argue even further but he knew better than to start a fight he had already lost before it began. What he had done was unacceptable and he knew it. “Listen, I’m really sorry.”

 

“Yea, you better be,” Katara said before storming off.  

 

“Hey at least he wasn’t interested in knowing your location afterwards anymore?” he tried saying to Aang to lighten the mood. 

 

He just shrugged in reply. 

 

~~

 

_ ZUKO  _

 

Zuko couldn’t believe what he just had done. As soon as he was far enough for Sokka not to see him anymore, he groaned and slid himself onto the ground with his back pressed against a tree. How could he have been so stupid? What was he thinking?  _ Nothing, clearly. _

 

It just had.. happened. Really. He knew he shouldn’t have but suddenly Sokka’s mouth was on his, or his was on Sokka’s, he wasn’t even sure anymore, and everything seemed to have stopped for a second and then second later he was so worked up he was ready to throw almost everything away in that instant and it was just so  _ stupid. _ And now he was left with uncomfortably tight pants and perhaps even more self hatred than before.    
  
What would he do now? .. What could he do now? He could get back to his uncle and lie, say the Avatar is no where near and lock himself up in his room until the bruise that was apparently forming on his neck would be gone, dying from embarrassment in the meanwhile. But he had thrown away enough years of his life already. He couldn’t quit now, not because of some make-out session he had just had. He had to compose himself, take a deep breath, and never ever think about this whole thing again.   
  
From now on he was going to ignore Sokka no matter what. No matter his feelings, no matter if he could be used to lead him to the Avatar or not. He wasn’t even going to look in his direction anymore. Never. He didn’t trust himself to anymore. The thoughts of Sokka’s hands in Zuko’s hair, his mouth on his neck were too much to handle. Because that was perhaps the worst part of all, that if he had the opportunity he would do it all again in a heartbeat because it just had felt so  _ right  _ in that moment. But it wasn’t right, not at all. So, he couldn’t let the opportunity arise ever again. 

 

~~

 

Sneaking onto the ship was easier than he had hoped, at least he had that going for him. He had his hand covering his neck, which was very much not subtle at all, ignoring all the guards on deck (who ignored him too for the most part as always) and rushed to his room as if his life depended on it, but not enough to actually raise questions from the crew. 

 

Once in his room, he still felt like he couldn’t fully breathe anymore. 

What he saw in the mirror was definitely worse than he had imagined or hoped. It wasn’t just a bruise that covered the lower half of his neck, no, the bruise was pretty much the whole right size of his neck. Or maybe it just looked bigger in his head because of the stress he was feeling. Either way, it was too big for Zuko to handle. 

 

He groaned,  _ how could Sokka have been this stupid?  _ He thought, as if he hadn’t wanted it himself, and as if he couldn’t have stopped Sokka as soon as it started, as if he hadn’t full on moaned while it was happening. God, this was so embarrassing!  _ He had moaned! _

  
Just the thought of it all and his fingers tracing his neck was enough of a reminder to start to blush again and bring up his heart rate  _ as if he was a preteen girl with a massive crush  _ which just ultimately made it worse. 

 

“Urgg!” Zuko groaned and a fireball was shot into the nothingness of his room, the heat in his room climbing up straight away. 

 

Of course, the universe wouldn’t even give him his moment of anger release because the next second he heard a knock on the door. 

 

“Prince Zuko, are you okay? it doesn’t sound like it-” his uncles voice was heard from the other side of the wall. “I’m gonna come in-”

 

“NO! WAIT! I- uhm-..;” his uncle couldn’t come in like this, not when he had least hasn’t put a scarf on. “I am-.. Indecent! Yes! Give me a second-”

 

Which seemed like a good excuse until he heard his uncle being at loss for words, which literally never happened, saying “Ah- I see- I uh-... Nevermind then, I’ll see you later-” which was the moment he realized,  _ uncle thinks I was having a jack-off session, an extremely angry jack-off session _ . This really was just the cherry on top of this miserable cake.

 

“NO! No, that’s not what I- Wait-!” he yelled, feeling how his cheeks were glowing hot. The sound of footsteps getting further away. He had to go explain himself. He ran to his closet, took out a scarf that he had never had to use before but certainly was thankful for now (“ _ no uncle, I don’t need a scarf! I’m a firebender!”, “Prince Zuko, maybe it’ll come in handy one day, you’ll see!” _ ), and hurried out of the door. 

 

“Uncle- wait!”

 

Iroh was already at the other side of the hall, and sadly enough there were other crew members who had of course turned their attention towards the two. 

 

“Go on with your work!” he commanded them while walking towards his uncle, hoping ‘their work’ would be far, far away from here. How much they had heard, he didn’t know, but it definitely wasn’t any of their business at all. Zuko lowered his voice to talk to his uncle now, just incase. “I wasn’t-... not-..” big awkward arm movements were made to get across his point, his cheeks glowing way too much to be anywhere near natural. 

 

To his confusion, his uncle broke out into a big grin and said, “Oh nephew, don’t worry about it, you’re a 16 year old boy! When I was your age-”

 

“No, please, don’t-” Iroh almost went on as Zuko buried his face in his hands, until he noticed the scarf because of course he did. “Are you cold, prince Zuko? I told you it’d come in handy!”

 

“What? No I-... got attacked by.. A platypusbear! In my neck!” which was one of the worst lies he had ever told and he knew it. Zuko cursed himself for not just saying ‘Yes, I am cold’. Attacked by a platypusbear in his neck? Who in their right mind would believe that? If you get attacked by a platypusbear in the neck that badly, you probably won’t live to tell the tale! 

 

“What? That sounds dangerous. You must be more careful around wildlife, nephew! Let me see-” Iroh was already reaching for the scarf before Zuko could fully register what was happening and he was too late to stop him. 

 

So there they stood, Zuko with a giant bruise on his neck that he definitely couldn’t talk himself out of this time, bright red, and his uncle with the scarf in his hand only mildly shocked for a second before grinning again. “So, did you find the Avatar?” it sounded like a change in topic but it wasn’t. Zuko knew his uncle knew. He wasn’t sure how he had thought it was  _ Sokka _ of all people straight away, but he knew and there was no going back now. The fact that his uncle didn’t even seem mildly surprised wasn’t making anything better at all. “Or someone else?”

 

This was humiliating! 

 

He didn’t what to say anymore. His cheeks were close to actually starting a fire themselves by the heat radiating off of them, seems like they have been pretty much all day, and his mouth just kinda opened and closed like a goldfish for a few seconds. 

 

“You know, there really is nothing to be ashamed about!” His uncle tried to reassure him. “Your soulmate and you have this special bound where-“ 

 

“I don’t want to talk about it!” he angrily snatched the scarf and stormed off to his room. He wasn’t going to listen to his uncle explaining sexual tension between soulmates! 

  
  
_ This is becoming the second the worst days of my life _ , he decided. 


	4. Chapter 4

_ SOKKA _

 

Listen, Sokka wasn’t using Yue to get over his feelings (if they could even be called that) for Zuko. He really wasn’t. Sure, over the past few days, the memory of Zuko’s mouth on his, his legs wrapped around Sokka, just the whole thing that had happened really, popped up in his mind more times than he was proud of. Especially at night the memory of this did… things to him. But Sokka wasn’t a cruel person. Yue wouldn’t deserve something like that. 

 

He knew he liked Yue too. Sure, they hadn’t know each other for too long but he still felt strangely affectionate for her. 

 

Of course that all came crashing down when she said she was engaged though.  _ Engaged? Why? _

 

As she was explaining how she absolutely had to do this, why she had absolutely get to marry to whomever it is, Sokka decided on a foolish whim to bring up the topic of soulmates, because thinking before speaking clearly isn’t his forte. 

 

“Is he your soulmate then?” At least that would ease his pain a bit. 

 

Aside from the obvious problem that he liked Yue, the whole ordeal just seemed stupid to him. Who would marry someone they didn’t even love? That’s just stupid. What kind of father would marry of their daughters for political reasons? His definitely would never. 

 

But Yue just narrowed her eyes and looked away. “No, I don’t have a soulmate tattoo.”

 

“Oh, that’s-“  _ practical. _ Of course he couldn’t say that, but at least that did make the whole situation a tiny bit better, knowing Yue’s soulmate wasn’t somewhere out there being not good enough according to her father. Only like 1% though. 

 

She shrugged “It used to bother me, but not anymore. It just makes things easier, I guess.” 

 

Sokka nodded in understanding and the two fell silent for a while. 

 

“Do you?” Yue suddenly asked. “A soulmate?”

 

For a second Sokka debated whether he should say no, but he couldn’t do that to her. She had the right to know, and it’s not like he was embarrassed over the fact that he had a soulmate or something. Who his soulmate was, that was the embarrassing part. But if Yue had told him about her engagement and about not having a soulmate, he should tell about his too. “Yea…”

 

“Really? How do you think they’ll be?” She sounded overly excited all of the sudden, slightly clasping her hands together. 

 

“I know exactly who he is,” he spat before even thinking. 

 

Yue looked pretty shocked at this of course, considering what Sokka and her had been doing this week, and considering it wasn’t exactly socially acceptable to not like your soulmate. “You do? Then why are you-“ 

 

“Listen Yue, he might be my soulmate but I-... we can’t-... we’re not-... okay so uh… he kind of wants to capture Aang?” How was he supposed to explain that?  _ Yea my soulmate occasionally just appears out of the blue and gets us almost killed because he’s strangely attached to the Avatar for some reason. No big deal, of course. _

 

“Capture Aang?” 

 

“Yea, he’s the Prince of the Fire Nation?” Sokka looked away again. The view they had on the city from here was really beautiful, especially in the moonlight. The North and South pole were so different, almost like day and night, but at the same time he felt a real connection to this place. 

 

“Ah I see, you have a thing for princes and princesses then,” she giggled, as if it was even remotely funny. 

 

It still made Sokka blush for some stupid reason. 

 

“It doesn’t matter, we both agreed to do nothing about it either way,”  _ except for that time in the woods.  _ But she definitely didn’t need to know that. 

 

“Why not?”

 

Why did no one except Katara understand he couldn’t just fall in love with the  _ enemy _ ? What is wrong with everyone? First Aang, now Yue, did they really not get it?

 

“Like I said, he wants to capture Aang! He’s not a good person, Yue. Not at all!”

 

“I really wished you had a better soulmate, Sokka,” she said and it sounded so sincere. 

 

~~

 

He couldn’t believe he had been throw off the mission! It wasn’t fair at all! Sure he had fought Hanh, but he didn’t regret that. The jerk fully deserved it. How dare he be this respectful towards Yue? He might be handsome, but that really was the only thing that had been going for him, because his personality is a major letdown. And to say that Sokka had given them so much useful information! From a whole explanation of who admiral Zhoa is to the fact that their Fire Navy uniform were definitely out of date. He would know what the current ones looked like, he had cursed them back when Zuko had worn them in the woods that one day. They were impractical but not pointy-shoulders-impractical!  _ I would’ve probably been stabbed in the eye otherwise _ .  _ That, I could never explain to Katara.  _

 

~~

  
  


In the end, it turned out Yue’s father wanted to give him a special mission to keep her safe. That eased his pain of being throw of the mission a bit. Okay, it eased it a lot. 

 

So Yue didn’t exactly want a relationship with him (because of _ stupid  _ Hanh, of all people!), but he still had promised her father he’d protect her. And he would. Sokka cared for her, platonically or romantically, it didn’t matter. She had to stay safe. He couldn’t lose any more lives because of this war. 

 

Which is why, when he heard Zuko had arrived to the North Pole, because of course he had, he wasn’t exactly stoked about the whole thing. 

 

If Yue realized he was the Prince, she didn’t say anything about it at least. Still, it was kind of an awkward situation to be in really. At least Yue could see now that his soulmate very much was a person he shouldn’t be with. 

 

The worst part is that this time, Zuko actually had captured Aang so they had to actively go looking for him as well! Almost as if the world had turned upside down or something, but not quite. 

 

~~

  
  


They couldn’t have gone far in this weather and he knew it. Sokka had surprisingly a lot of faith in Zuko. Well, faith that he and Aang would stay alive even in this blizzard at least. Not faith that Zuko had suddenly turned into a good person and had just taken Aang on a fun trip or something like that. No, Zuko just never gave up on things. Never. Except for his soulmate apparently. He seemed pretty happy to give that up. Not that Sokka cared or was even mildly bitter about that, of course. 

  
  


So when they eventually found them (thanks to Aang’s light or whatever it was) and Katara had fought Zuko off, he really couldn’t care less at first. Zuko fully deserved not winning from his sister and getting his ass kicked. Until after a second some kind of weird panic kicked in.  _ What if he doesn’t make it out of this snow now he’s unconscious? _ Again, not that he’d care. 

 

“We can’t leave him here!” Aang protested, and he was right. They really couldn't. Zuko was a jerk and an asshole and he deserved to be left alone but he didn’t deserve to  _ die.  _ Even if he had not been Sokka’s soulmate he probably wouldn’t have wanted him to die, because this wasn’t about the universe, this was about the fact that Sokka, _ unlike Zuko _ , was not a bad person. 

 

Sokka didn’t say that though. “Sure we can!” 

 

At least now Katara wouldn’t think anything of it, would believe he and Zuko’s… thing… really had been a one time thing. 

 

Again, if Yue realized anything about him being the Prince of the Fire Nation and therefore his soulmate now, she didn’t mention it. 

 

~~

 

He couldn’t believe this at all. It just seemed like the millionth cruel joke the universe was playing on him. 

 

Zhao had killed the stupid koi fish,  _ the moon spirit _ , and general Iroh of course had to say “you have some of the moon spirit in you,” which was just. Really unfair. How did Iroh even know? Did he have  _ magic spirit eyes _ or something stupid like that? If anything, shouldn’t Aang be the only one able to tell just from sight? 

 

Why was Zhao in this whole mess anyway? They had Zuko after Aang, right? Wasn’t he enough? Sure, he’d been failing but still. Rather Zuko than Zhao! At least Zuko didn’t have an entire army with him. 

 

For a split second he thought Iroh had done it to get rid of Yue. He was Zuko’s uncle after all. But he shook that thought out of his head almost straight away. Iroh seemed to be a much too smart and considerate man for that, even if he was the brother from the Fire Lord and even if Sokka couldn’t stand anyone in that family. No, general Iroh looked like he genuinely wanted to help the spirits. Maybe he really was on some kind of higher spiritual level than most others?

 

Of course Sokka knew in his right mind she had to do this, that she had no other choice really. Without the moon, everything would collapse, not only the water benders. That didn’t take away from how much it stung though. His heart really ached for her. 

 

Not only had he not succeeded in his one mission, to protect her, no, he was losing someone he cared about. Again. 

 

Sokka tried to stop her, knowing she wouldn’t listen. Knowing she’d do this either way. Knowing she had to. 

 

Yue had kissed him one last time after she became a spirit, short and sweet and almost perfect, except for the very obvious part that the situation wasn’t anywhere near perfect.  _ Life isn’t fair.  _

 

~~

 

_ ZUKO _

 

Zoku couldn’t believe this. He knew Zhao played dirty, but now he had flatout tried to kill him, and that was low even for him.  _ Maybe I deserve to die _ . That thought went more through his head than it probably should. But he couldn’t die now. Not when the Avatar was so close within reach. The fact that he had even survived this whole thing showed enough that he had to survive in general, and that he had to capture the Avatar. 

 

If anything, his ship being destroyed was a bigger problem than people trying to kill him. So that’s how he ended up on Zhao's ship, in disguise as a regular Fire Navy soldier. At least he and his uncle had a plan, right? Or well, he was working on a plan, but that’s good enough for now. Zhoa, the very man who had tried to kill him, who didn’t want him anywhere near the Avatar, was now bringing him straight towards him himself. 

 

~~

 

His plan had worked, sort of. Zuko had been happy Sokka hadn’t been anywhere near when he captured the Avatar. He couldn’t believe it, he had the Avatar! Zuko had finally succeeded and the only thing in his way now was a stupid blizzard.  _ Who even lives in these weather conditions? _ How did these people survive?

 

Snow wasn’t for him, he decided.  _ Sokka probably likes snow. Seriously, how are we even soulmates? _

 

Aang’s eyes and tattoos were all glow-y, as if he were in the avatar state. Zuko wasn’t sure what this meant, maybe something with the spirits? The Avatar had always been fighting or rescuing himself when he had previously entered the Avatar state, but now he was just so peacefully quiet. He should really ask his uncle about it when they saw each other again. Or even better, ask the Avatar himself, but Zuko doubted he’d get an answer. 

 

So Katara had found a master, that was something he wasn’t fully prepared for. It didn’t matter either way, no water bender was going to stop him. Not even during an almost full moon. After all, the sun would rise sooner or later and then he’d be the strongest of the two. 

 

He started talking to the Avatar, because what else could he do?

 

“My father says she was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born” he spat. He knew Aang wouldn’t reply, or probably could even hear him. Nonetheless, he kept going, more so for his own sanity than anything else. “I don’t need luck though” 

 

After his little monologue he debated whether he should add something about Sokka. He really shouldn’t, he decided. No one except for him would know, Aang probably wouldn’t remember, but it would still get his mind on the wrong track. That wasn’t allowed to happen. 

 

Suddenly, everything went white in the cave, a bright flash blinded him for only a second before everything went back to normal. That could only mean one thing. “You’re awake”. Granted, it would’ve been a lot easier if Aang hadn’t woken up before he had returned home, but it’s not like he was expecting that kind of luck anyway. The fact that he could snatch him away so easily without having to even fight him was already more luck than he had been hoping for. 

 

Sadly enough, where an awake Avatar is, there is his team of course because there was that stupid flying bison with Katara and Sokka and a girl he didn’t know and didn’t want to think about, not even a few moments later. The light must’ve given it all away. It didn’t matter. He’d beat Katara again. She might have found a master but he was too determined to be defeated. 

 

“Here for a rematch?”

 

“Believe me Zuko, it won’t be much of a rematch.” 

 

And then suddenly before he knew it, everything went black. 

 

~~

 

When he woke up, it only took him half a second to realize that Katara had definitely beat him which was embarrassing to say the least.  _ Stupid moon! _ And seems like they decided to save him and not let him die in the snow, which was potentially more embarrassing. No matter what they think, he’s not going to stop his mission just because they ‘saved’ him. He could perfectly save himself, thank you very much. 

 

Zuko wasn’t sure what the whole scene in front of him was, and he didn’t want to think about it either. He had to get away as soon as possible, and considering everyone seemed pretty busy with whatever, now seemed like the perfect time. 

 

Escaping was easy enough, no one noticed anyway. 

 

What he definitely did know, was that his heart was faintly aching again, like that time when he was 11 when his uncle had said soulmates could feel each other’s pain. Sure, it wasn’t as badly as it was back then, but there was still pain.  _ Sokka is in pain.  _ Should he go back? Make sure Sokka is okay?  _ Why am I so stupid? Of course I shouldn’t! He’ll figure this out on his own! _

 

And then he ran into Zhao. Good. He had been waiting for this, and it was the perfect thing to keep his mind off of his heartache.  _ Seriously, what is happening? Who is dying? _

 

“You tried to have me killed!” He yelled and attacked straight away, pulling up all of his anger he had in him towards Zhao. Zuko didn’t want to hear his stupid excuses, not that he’d come up with any. 

 

Zhao said something about him and his uncle being traitors or whatever and he couldn’t care less which is why he kept attacking the admiral.  _ Traitors _ . That’s a problem for tomorrow. And so was the heartache. 

 

The battle went on, both being too strong, both underestimating each other. Zuko had been waiting for this!

 

Which made his decision to ultimately try to save him once the Avatar (he guessed that was what that sea monster was anyway) had grabbed Zhao even dumber. He hadn’t taken his hand in the end, making Zuko look even more foolish. Why did he do that?  _ Why can I never do anything right? I can’t even let Zhao meet his faith I wanted him to meet!  _

 

He admitted to himself that the main reason he wanted to safe Zhao was so that he could finish this himself. Finish what he had started, at least for this one time. Take out all the build up anger onto him. 

 

Either way, the Zhao problem was solved for now, he guessed. He had to get out of here. 

 

~~

 

Somehow, his uncle and him ended up on a piece of driftwood in the ocean.  _ Great.  _ If they ever found land and would survive this, that’d be a fucking miracle. Zuko promised himself he couldn’t die now. Not here. Not in the sea. No matter what.  _ Come on miracles, please work with me just this once! _

 

Another failed mission, and now he was left with not only no ship and no crew, his uncle was a traitor for saving some stupid koi fish apparently, and he was for being the blue spirit. Okay, it wasn’t about the koi fish but about the moon spirit but still. He knew better than to ask if the moon ‘was really that important’. 

 

“That girl had a piece of the moon spirit inside her! It was very noble of her,” his uncle began. He guessed that was the girl he had seen with the Avatar and his gang. Guess that’s how she got the white hair. 

 

“Sure is.” At least she succeeded in not letting down her father and her people, something Zuko clearly couldn’t. 

 

“Sokka didn’t seem to take it very well though, he-“

 

“What?” Zuko tried to not sound too interested all of the sudden, but it was hard. Sokka and that girl? It couldn’t be, right? His uncle’s voice definitely seemed to imply that, but still.  _ That would explain the heartache.  _

 

Iroh knew he had run his mouth, there was really no point in hiding it anyway. “Ah, it seems like, Sokka had grown pretty affectionate towards her in these past few days. I can’t be too sure but they definitely kissed before she fully turned into the moon…” 

 

Kissed? Not that he  _ cared _ who Sokka kissed of course. Sokka could do whatever he wanted with his mouth. But there was still a pang of jealousy in his chest which he tried to suppress as soon as it came. It probably hadn’t have been the same kind of kiss as that time in the woods anyway, that’d just be plain weird in front of everyone. But Sokka had clearly cared a great lot, and Zuko had felt it himself. Sokka deserved better than his girlfriend (?) turning into the moon. Sokka deserved better than Zuko as his soulmate. Sokka deserved better in general.  _ Why do I have to feel his pain too? Is my own not enough?! _

 

“Nephew, I’m sure that he-“

 

Zuko cut him off. “It doesn’t matter anyway.” He narrowed his eyes. 

 

“Don’t say that!”

 

Zuko then thought for a second about the fact that it had been a girl that Sokka had apparently fallen for. Did Sokka like both men and women? Zuko never knew that had been a possibility before. It made sense though, he decided. If people could like men or women, surely some would like both, right? But he still definitely only liked boys, sadly enough.

 

“Soulmates are stupid. I’m tired. Don’t talk about it anymore.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so so much for all the kudos and comments I greatly appreciate it and I’m really happy you all like the story ^^


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is set during the first couple of episodes of season 2 ^^

_ ZUKO _

 

Zuko was still stunned by what Azula had just told them. He could go back home! His father had actually decided they wanted him back! That literally sounded too good to be true. But it was true. Of course family is the most important thing, and he was glad his father had came to that conclusion as well. He deserved to go home, if he said so himself.  _ Azula always lies.  _ But not about these things, right? 

 

His uncle didn’t seem to trust Azula. But lying about this? That’s low even for her. Of course his father wanted him back. His father loved him! His father  _ cared _ for him. 

 

“Don’t you want to chose a different path?” His uncle had asked. Why would he do that when this path was so clearly laid out for him? When this was pretty much the only path available?

 

“No, I’m going home!” Zuko said. Sure, he sounded way too defensive but he was. No old man was going to stop him.

 

“You won’t ever see that Water Tribe boy anymore, you know?” Iroh said, as it it was a bad thing. 

 

Zuko knew alright. No more Avatar also implied no more Sokka. If anything, that was just an added benefit. Maybe he could find a nice girl to start a relationship with, even if he didn’t like girls that way. It’s not like he had a different choice on the matter. He probably could learn to live with it, right? 

 

He had spent the last three years hunting down the Avatar, and the last three weeks on a piece of driftwood in the middle of the sea, being sure he’d never get out of that alive. He deserved this. 

 

Zuko thought back to Zhao's words. Ha, who was a disgrace to the Fire Nation now! Not him anymore!

 

Iroh was just a lazy old man who was jealous of his brother. Zuko told him that as well. 

 

And if his heart hurted a bit when saying that, he tried his best not to show it. 

 

~~

 

Of course it was a trap. He was so blinded by hope, he hadn’t even seen through it! Zuko had brought him and his uncle in danger for selfish reasons, again. Because of  _ hope _ of all things! He thought he had given up that a long while ago. 

 

Now there was literally no way back. They were refugees for the Fire Nation. From banished to refugees. He almost laughed out of bitterness. 

 

_The universe hates me, but what’s new?_ _I’m not giving up without a fight, I guess. I will get my honor back!_

 

Cutting his hair had been a logical decision. Not only was it way too obvious (how many people really had such a haircut like him anyway?), it was clear that his life totally flipped around starting from today. New life, new hair, kinda. Still, he wouldn’t give up his search of the Avatar just yet, but it was definitely postponed for a while now, he decided. 

 

It still stung though, watching his hair float down the river, along with his last bit of hope to ever return home. The worst part was that his uncle didn’t even seem to really care. Like he never wanted to be in the Fire Nation in the first place. As if he wasn’t part of the royal family too. 

 

~~

 

_ SOKKA _

 

Great. Now Sokka got stuck in some cave on his way to Omashu with a bunch of hippies that kept talking about  _ love  _ and  _ songs  _ and  _ the journey _ and whatever else they were talking about. He didn’t need love to get out of this maze! Sokka was gonna get them out with actual reasoning and maps. 

 

_ What does Chong know about love anyway? _ Sure, he had a wife and they seemed happy but still. Sokka knew enough about love to know that it was a stupid concept. He had let Suki behind after even really getting to know her as much as he wanted. Yue literally turned into the moon!  _ The moon! _ And well, Zuko, that was an entire other story on it’s own. Love was useless, especially in this situation. 

 

No, love wasn’t going to get them out of this cave, no matter what the nomads told him. Love wasn’t going to get him anywhere in life if things kept going like this. 

  
  


~~

 

In the end, he had been right of course. Ha! He mentally patted himself on the back.  _ Take that, love! _ Of course he didn’t need it. Who needs love when you can get two giant badgermoles to get you out of the cave? Not him, that’s for sure. Badgermoles were now his favourite animal, he decided. 

 

By the looks of it, Katara and Aang didn’t  _ exactly _ use the ‘trust in love’ technique either. Sure, they had understood what it meant but at the end of the day they still got out because of some glowing crystals, not because of some weird force from the universe. Love didn’t make the crystals glow, the darkness did. 

 

For a moment he wondered what Zuko was doing now. Only in favour of understanding him better so they could get away from him better, obviously. Still, it had been weeks since they had seen them. How did he even get out of the North Pole? He was just suddenly… gone. Most Fire Navy ships had been destroyed, and even the ones that weren’t, he didn’t know whether he actually got home with one of them or not. 

 

Maybe he went back home, fully gave up his search for good, and is now off somewhere doing some proper  _ Prince of the Fire Nation  _ duties. Whatever those could be. Was that even a possibility if he didn’t return with the Avatar? It’s not like Sokka knew a lot about his family situation, but it probably would be, right?

 

Sokka felt pretty relieved about this idea. Especially in the aftermath of what had happened to Yue, he needed some peace and quiet. Obviously, having no Zuko hunting them down helped greatly with that. Still, a tiny piece of him that he just couldn’t shut up was somewhat anxious. What if he didn’t get home? What if he froze to death? No, he wouldn’t. Not Zuko. Sokka wasn’t a monster, he didn’t want Zuko  _ dead _ , just not on their heels anymore. Or even better, he wanted Zuko to transform into some nice non-Fire Nation boy that would never harm a fly. All the rest he could keep. That’d be nice. 

 

It was still a weird concept to think about, no Zhao or no Zuko to hunt them down, that was definitely too good to be true. Sokka was sure one of these days someone was gonna jump out of some bush and suddenly fight them or something along those lines saying ‘haha, you thought you’ve seen the last of me?’, be it Zuko or someone else. 

 

“Hey, Sokka I-“ Aang asked. 

 

“WHAT?!” Sokka jumped. He had been so engrossed in his thought, he had for a moment forgotten he wasn’t alone. 

 

“You okay?” Katara said. 

 

“Yea, yea, sure, I was just… thinking.”

 

“About what the nomads said about love?” Aang asked, which seemed like a pretty bad idea because next thing he knew Katara had shoved him almost onto the ground. 

 

“Aang!” She protested. 

 

“I wasn’t thinking about love,” Sokka said, more so to his sister. “Or the nomads.”

 

“About what then?”

 

“Well, don’t you guys think it’s strange we haven’t seen Zuko in-“

 

“AHA! So it was about Zuko!” Katara said accusingly. This, Sokka decided, was dumb. It wasn’t even in the soulmate context but in the ‘he wants to hunt down Aang’ context! “Sokka, please be careful with these things, I just really don’t want you to get hurt!”

 

Luckily, Aang took his side on this one. “He has a point Katara, we haven’t seen Zuko in weeks. Don’t you think it’s strange?”

 

Katara folded her arms in front of her, still not very amused. “Well, I don’t care. If anything, isn’t that a good sign?”

 

“I’m just saying, I don’t trust it.” 

 

“We can’t trust Zuko, but we already knew that. Don’t we, Sokka?” 

 

Okay so the snide remarks really have been kept to a minimum over the past few weeks, but still, here and there she’d still make one. Sokka guessed he somewhat did deserve it. 

 

“No, we can’t,” he didn’t want to go in on it anymore. Bringing up Zuko in front of his sister clearly wasn’t a good idea. She was just trying to help, or something along those lines. 

 

_ Maybe Zuko is off somewhere in the Fire Nation with some nice girl or boy he could marry, considering his Prince status _ . Sokka had had this thought before too. He didn’t quite realize it was a thing before he had met Yue, but if it was seen as normal in the Northern Water Tribe, the Fire Nation surely wouldn’t be above anything of that sort either. He didn’t feel jealous, of course. No, if anything, he felt bad for whoever that person may could be, he tried telling himself. Although the main problem with Zuko was his obsession over the avatar, which that nice Fire Nation boy or girl probably won’t have problems with. 

 

_ No one deserves to be married off for political reasons to someone they don’t like though _ , his brain added.  _ Zuko doesn’t either.  _

 

~~

 

Omashu in the hands of the Fire Nation was truly a terrible sight to see. How did this even happen? King Bumi was a strong man, he couldn’t have just handed over his city without a fight, right? 

 

Actually being in Omashu was even worse. It was still a stupid idea, but Aang had really wanted to find Bumi and there really was no more way to talk him out of it. Aang really threw themselves in front of the lion’s den with this one, literally. 

 

~~

 

Sokka had to admit, that one girl with her blades she kept throwing around when trying to capture them was almost as scary as Zuko. Is that just a Fire Nation trait? Everyone are wicked good fighters, even all non-benders? Not that he had seen that many non-bending Fire Nation citizens. Actually, he never realized how many benders there are. In the South Pole, Katara had been the only one, but then in the North Pole and all over the earth kingdom and all those Fire Nation soldiers and Zuko and Iroh,... it almost seemed like everyone was a bender. Sometimes it made Sokka feel even worse about the fact that he couldn’t bend. He hadn’t really cared back in the South Pole, but now he definitely could use some bending from time to time. But it’s not like you absolutely need bending to be a good warrior, right?

 

At least this girl could fight for her own without some magic fire, it’d just be nice if the fighting hadn’t been directed towards him. Either way, he knew he could put up a fight too so it didn’t matter.  _ Thank you, boomerang _ . The only place his boomerang had ever let him down was when he realized it had been Zuko’s tattoo. Speaking of...

 

She kinda reminded him of Zuko in a strange way. He couldn’t really put his finger on it. But those were things for a later day, now he had to help all of these people out of Omashu. 

 

~~

 

Apparently, they had to deal with two extremely good fighters and one even better firebender, because the universe really couldn’t give them a break for once. Not even in Omashu. Traveling with the Avatar was dangerous business honestly. 

 

“I’m starting to think I’d rather have Zuko after us again,” Aang said when they were finally safe, back in the air. 

 

“Yea,” even Katara admitted it now. Sokka was too tired to even say anything about that and cause a scene, but still.

 

“Who do you think these three were?” Aang asked. 

 

“A lot of trouble, I’ll tell you that much.” Sokka sighed. 

 

“The firebender,... she looked pretty important,” Aang began. “And she looked a bit like Zuko somehow, didn’t she?” 

 

“I wouldn’t be surprised, that whole family is crazy apparently,” Sokka said. “And you’re a pretty big threat to them” 

 

Aang somewhat mumbled a “I don’t know, the older man seemed okay,” before adding, “when I was in the spirit world and Zuko had captured me, he had held this whole monologue. I barely catched anything, it weren’t my priorities at all at the moment, but I do believe he said something about a sister? Or maybe not, honestly, it was a weird situation maybe i just dreamed it.”

 

Sokka was once again reminded of how little they actually knew about Zuko. Except for the very first day, he never really had a conversation with the guy, and even that conversation was more about the tattoos than anything else. Zuko didn’t exactly seem like the person loving to talk about his family either, or about anything personal for that matter. 

 

“I guess she did look a bit like him,” he agreed. “Besides, the girl with her blades did call her ‘Princess Azula’. Only the Fire Lord and family would be stuck up enough to make their friends call them that.”

 

~~

 

Stupid swamp. Why had they stopped here in the first place? It’s not like he hadn’t warned against it. If anyone would listen just a tiny bit more to him, they wouldn’t be in trouble half of the times they were. 

 

He was all alone, cutting away some vines aggressively, when he accidentally stumbled and fell, feeling the swampy water all over himself.  _ Okay, gross.  _

 

And then suddenly, Yue appeared in front of him. It seemed too surreal and real at the same time, and Sokka really didn’t know what to make of it. He got closer and she just stayed there. 

 

“Yue?” 

 

_ This isn’t real, this isn’t real!  _

 

“You didn’t protect me,” she said in some strange voice that clearly wasn’t her because  _ it literally wasn’t her.  _

 

No, this couldn’t be happening. There had to be a logical explanation. Surely, Sokka must have hit his head just now while falling or something along those lines. He was just losing his sanity from being in this swamp for too long, especially now he was alone. And then she was gone suddenly. 

 

Right. Time to find the others and get out of this swamp as soon as possible, before he completely lost his mind. 

 

When he turned around, he had the scare of his life with Yue standing right infront of him all of the sudden. His heart raced like crazy, pounding in his chest. 

 

Things however started to get even weirder (and creepy) and Yue somehow morphed into Zuko, and the figure became more distant, almost as if he were floating backwards into the nothingness, which was a weird sight but it made Sokka’s blood boil. 

 

“I knew you’d be back!” He wanted to run towards Zuko, not too sure what to do afterwards.  _ This isn’t real.  _ But why did it feel so real? 

 

“Am I? Will I ever?” Zuko said, before disappearing into thin air as soon as Sokka got close.

 

What did this even mean?

He really must be losing his sanity. 

 

_ You didn’t protect me.  _ Those words were hard to hear coming from Yue. But it hadn’t been Yue of course. It couldn’t be. He knew he hadn’t protected her, but he really had no business protecting her against herself, even if he really wished he could. All the things she had done, she did because she wanted to. That didn’t take away how heavy his heart got when thinking back on it, but it did somewhat ease his mind. 

  
  


_ Am I? Will I ever?  _ He didn’t know. Would they ever see Zuko again? Did Sokka care? Before knowing his soulmate, the whole matter was barely on his mind. Since meeting Zuko, he’d been thinking about it way too much. 

 

One thing was sure, he had to get out of this swamp as soon as possible. The fog must have started fogging up his brain too. 

 

~~

 

Sokka didn’t believe this thing about the swamp showing visions of loved ones that were dead for a second. No, it had just been in his head. He had missed  Yue sure, but Zuko definitely isn’t a ‘loved one’. Or ‘dead’. Okay maybe he (sub)consciously had thought more than once that Zuko had died somewhere along the way, but that didn’t mean he was actually dead. Maybe the swamp played in to those emotions, showing who people  _ think  _ are dead, but that doesn’t mean they are. 

 

No, Zuko didn’t die, he doesn’t give up. Not ever. 

Besides, Aang had seen a girl he hadn’t even ever met before.  _ But he’s the Avatar, of course there’s an exception for him _ . It didn’t matter. Sokka knew there would probably be a logical scientific explanation to be found. 

 

If Zuko really had died, he probably would know by some force of the universe. If there was this weird feeling that came as soon as they were even remotely near to each other, or if he could literally feel Zuko getting his scar, there certainly also would be some kind of feeling if either of them died.  _ A very very painful feeling, probably.  _

  
All he knew was that it had been a good call not telling Aang and Katara that he had also seen Zuko. The last thing he needed was for Katara to think Zuko was a  _ loved one.  _


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zuko’s part is set during Zuko Alone and Sokka’s is set somewhere after The Blind Bandit ^^

_ZUKO_

 

Leaving his uncle had been a good decision, Zuko decided. With his stupid talks and proverbs about soulmates and paths and tea. He didn’t need to hear it any more. The old man just had been in his way the whole time really. His uncle simply didn’t understand that this life wasn’t something for Zuko. He couldn’t do it anymore. He’d rather starve than beg for food, especially with how cruel people were being. And his uncle had just let them! He was proud of himself for not letting that one slide, teaching the man a lesson one night, even if his uncle never got to know. It was better if he never got to know. Still, it had to be done, so he did.

 

_Uncle is just pulling me down at this point._

 

Zuko wondered what had happened to the Great General Iroh, with his siege of Ba Sing Se. Sure, Lu Ten had died, but he was still weak. Fire Lord Ozai would never change his life around like that, even if either Zuko or even Azula died. _Is that really a good thing, though?_ Yes, Ozai wasn’t as weak as his brother. _A good Fire Lord can never lose his honor, no matter what reason._

 

He hadn’t been this alone in a long while. No people telling him what to do, no idea how to go on. Should he keep looking for the Avatar? What difference would it make? Even if he found him, he didn’t think that’d be enough to make his father forgive him this time around. But what else could he do with his life?

 

~~

 

He was so hungry. It had been days since he had left now and it had seemed like an eternity. He wasn’t fully sure where he was even going. Ba Sing Se? Maybe that’d be a good idea. But what could he do there? He really should’ve thought of this all sooner. Not that he had a lot of time sooner to think about this. It had been a whim of the moment thing, like most things in his life. _A good fighter and strategist can think fast._

 

Zuko couldn’t rob the man and pregnant lady, no matter how hungry he was. He might didn’t have a lot of empathy for people anymore, but he couldn’t just rob a pregnant woman, that’d be beyond cruel, even for him. _Sokka would be disappointed._ He almost snorted at that thought as it popped up in his head. As if Sokka wasn’t disappointed in Zuko already.

 

So he kept going, hoping to stumble upon something else on the way.

 

His vision was getting blurry, Zuko was so dehydrated, hungry and tired he barely could keep his eyes open anymore. It almost felt like his soul was slipping out of his body at some point. But he couldn’t stop here in the middle of nowhere, that wouldn’t be helpful either.  

 

~~

 

Zuko shouldn’t have covered for the boy in the first place, he should’ve just ratted him out to the soldiers when he had the chance. But it was just a little kid, and what else could he do? _No one showed me mercy when I was just a kid._

 

Going to the farm with Lee was probably a bad idea, but the hunger and thirst fogged up his brain so much, he couldn’t bring himself to care. At least the kid was going to give his ostrich horse something to eat. Zuko wasn’t sure how long such an animal could go on without food or drinks, but surely if he was having trouble, the animal carrying him would be too.

 

~~

 

Staying for this long had been a stupid mistake. He was getting strangely attached to the young boy. It just wasn’t fair that the soldiers in the town were such bullies! Not that he cared, he had had a rough childhood too and he had turned out just fine. And he didn’t feel that attached but even so. These people shouldn’t be calling themselves soldiers, it was a disgrace to people actually fighting in the war and losing their lives over it.

 

Today had been quite hard. It had been filled with flashbacks of things that he thought he had buried a long time ago. The memories of him and his mother feeding the turtle ducks, his uncle gifting him that blade that said _never give up without a fight_ . He snorted. Wasn’t that exactly what his uncle had done now? Sure, he’s had enough fights. Still, he had pretty much given up now. _At one point, everyone gives up even when they could keep fighting, don’t they?_

 

Of course he noticed Lee sneaking in to steal his swords while he thought Zuko was sleeping, years of being on that ship made him a light sleeper. And years of being Azula’s brother made him very aware of theft while he was sleeping. Zuko should’ve said something straight away, but couldn’t bring himself to it. The boy probably just wanted to play or practice, whatever you want to call it, with the swords. It’s a good skill to have, Zuko decided. And that’s why, in the end, he even went out and showed the boy how to use them properly. If Lee wasn’t a bender, he should learn to defend himself by others means.

 

_Sokka managed just fine without bending_ , Zuko had to admit. Even while using a stupid boomerang. Maybe not as well as Katara or Aang were, but still enough to pull his weight. Where did Sokka learn how to fight? Who had given him  a boomerang of all things? Why had Sokka learned how to fight? Was he planning on going to fight in the war one day or another too?

 

Either way, Zuko was glad for his own abilities while handling the swords. It’d come in handy now no one could know he was a firebender.

 

“Hey, can I ask you something?” The boy asked afterwards.

 

Zuko really should say no, he had given the boy enough already and he had said too much already but he ended up responding anyway. “What is it?”

 

“Do you know something about soulmates?”

 

Okay now that, Zuko hadn’t been expecting. “I guess you could say so.”

 

“Do you have one?” The boy asked with big eyes.

 

Zuko stayed silent for a few moments, debating whether he should just lie to Lee. “Yes,” he ended up saying.

 

“Really? Have you met her yet?”

 

_Her_. Zuko couldn’t bring himself to correct the boy in order to have an awkward conversation about that matter. No, this was bad enough already. “I have,” he said.

 

“How is she?”

 

“They are… nice,” he ended up saying. If Lee noticed Zuko not using ‘she’, he didn’t say anything about it.

 

“Why isn’t she with you now?”

 

Zuko honestly wasn’t sure why he was talking about this in the first place with the boy, it definitely wasn’t a something he wanted to discuss, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop it either. “Because of uh… circumstances,” he said vaguely.

 

“Do you want to see my tattoo?” Lee asked, sounding pretty excited, not seeming to notice Zuko’s uncomfortableness on the matter. At least Lee hadn’t asked to see his.

 

“Alright.”

 

Lee lifted up his shirt a bit to show off a tattoo of a golden necklace with some charm that was probably pretty unique to said necklace. “It’s pretty, right?” Lee asked.

 

“It is.”

 

“I can’t wait to meet her!”

 

_At least these tattoos don’t form a problem for every child_ , Zuko thought, though he was still a bit bitter that for him it definitely had caused a problem.

 

~~

 

Zuko had left, even if Lee asked him to stay now his father was gone. He had done enough for the child, if he said so himself. He wasn’t a father figure and could barely pass for a big brother, leave alone to this family that he barely knew. It wouldn’t be fair either, him being a firebender and the son of Fire Lord Ozai at that. If they knew they’d want nothing to do with him, and especially wouldn’t want him staying near their house anymore.

  
So there he was, laying in the grass, trying his very best to not think about the past, but he couldn’t help it. The memories were too strong.

 

“Dad is going to kill you!” Young Azula had sung one day.

 

Zuko became defensive of course. “He would never do that to me!”

 

Wouldn’t he? No he wouldn’t, Azula always lies. No father wants to kill his son, right? And especially not his father! He _cared_!

 

Suddenly he remembered when him and his mother sat at the pond with the turtle ducks one day, close after his 10th birthday. A memory he tried to suppress, like most memories of his mother. They just lead to pain really.

 

“Well, whoever this person with the boomerang may be, I’m sure they’ll love you very much!” she had said.

 

“Dad said it’s a boy,” Zuko looked away, knowing he should apparently be ashamed of that, even if he didn’t fully understand why.

 

Ursa pressed her lips in a thin line, debating about her answer.

 

Finally she replied, “well, I don’t see what’s wrong with that.”

 

“Dad says it’s not proper for boys to like boys.”

 

“Well, you can’t control who you love,” she slightly patted his head to comfort him.

 

“Like you love dad?”

 

“Yea,” she smiled.   
  
At the time, Zuko had believed it. Now, he knew better. Of course it had been a lie. Just the thought of his mother lying to him, even about that, had hurt him. _What more did she lie about?_

 

Frankly, Zuko wished he could just forget all these thoughts like he had never lived them. That’d make his life a bit easier at least.

 

Suddenly, his train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of an ostrich horse fastly approaching. Before he could even fully sit up, Lee’s mom hurried towards him.

 

“You have to help, it’s Lee-”

 

Zuko couldn’t care less. What was it his fault that they had taken Lee? Until his mother said he had pulled a knife on them, that is. Lee’s mother sounded so helpless, and it had been foolish to even give the boy the knife in the first place. He should’ve known better. Lee wasn’t the kind of kid to quietly practice and never actually show anyone the knife.

 

“I’ll get your son”, he said, because what else could he do? He shoved the memories of his childhood back to a far corner in his brain, hoping he’d never think of any of it ever again.

  


~~

 

Of course it had been a stupid thing to start firebending, and an even stupider thing to proclaim to be the Prince of the Fire Nation. His mother told him to never forget who he is, but where did that bring him? _Heir to the throne._ Not anymore, not at the moment, probably. Azula was the heir to the throne now.

 

Ashamed, Zuko had to admit he probably wouldn’t have won without his firebending and he still had too much pride to get that bully win over him just because he couldn’t use his bending. Especially if said bully was using his bending.

 

He couldn’t blame Lee’s mother for not letting him close to her son anymore, and he couldn’t blame Lee for saying he hated him and not taking the knife back. It was just a painful reminder that no matter where he went, no matter what he did, things would never come easy to him. And that mom’s always protect their children.

 

~~

 

_SOKKA_

 

So team Avatar had a new member, Toph Beifong, that was pretty cool.   
  
Until the inevitable topic of soulmates came up for no reason at all. Couldn’t people just ignore the fact that soulmates even were a thing to begin with? Why was everyone so _obsessed_ with them _?_

 

“My parents told me I have a soulmate tattoo, but they never told me what it looked like,” Toph suddenly said after a long silence that had stretched between them, still high up in the air, flying on Appa.

 

“That’s cruel…” Katara remarked. “Why would they tell you you have one in the first place then?”

 

“Yea, they said it didn’t matter, that the universe has no point in deciding who I’ll like. To me it seems more like they simply didn’t like the tattoo,” she said. “I can’t make out much from feeling the outline, it’s almost of those things are a part of your skin rather than they are just on your skin.”

 

Sokka was curious now. It couldn’t possibly be worse than his, right?  “Do you want us to tell you?” He asked, more for his own interests than for Tophs. Katara noticed this and lightly smacked him on the arm. _Don’t meddle like this,_ she mouthed.

 

Toph still thought about it. “I don’t know. How are soulmates working out for you guys?”

 

“Katara and I don’t have one,” Aang replied.

 

“And Sokka?”

 

“I do,” he admitted, ignoring Katara’s angry graze. He couldn’t exactly act like he didn’t, right? It would be plain cruel to lie to the blind girl about something she couldn’t see.

 

“You don’t seem too thrilled?” She noted.

 

“Yea, that’s because I’m not,” Sokka said.

 

“Oh, come on. Fill me in here! I’m new to the group, you have to explain these things to me!” Toph didn’t exactly sound like she really really wanted to know about Sokka’s soulmate in specific, more so that she didn’t like the others knowing things that she didn’t, but she did make a point. She was new, it would be unfair to keep things behind from her. Especially when said thing could potentially try to kill them one day. _If Zuko ever came back. I really kinda hope he does._

 

“Well,” Sokka began and Katara threw him an angry look which he ignored. “My soulmate has almost gotten us killed, or wanted to kill us, depending how you see it…”

 

“Seems like you’re a terrible kisser then,” she reacted immediately, causing Sokka to go beet red.

 

“Toph! No! That’s not-” he tried.

 

“Are you saying you _are_ a good kisser? Wow Sokka, so humble you are!” She cocked an eyebrow.

 

“His soulmate is Prince Zuko from the Fire Nation who is obsessed with capturing Aang.” Katara cut in, clearly not having it with this whole conversation.

 

“Makes sense,” Toph barely reacted. “Sounds rough. Does he know?”

 

“Of course he knows!” Katara kept answering for her brother, which annoyed him greatly to say the least, but he knew she just cared for him and that it wasn’t some personal attack. “Do you think the Prince of the Fire Nation cares about these kinds of things?”

 

“I don’t know, never met him,” she shrugged.

 

“Well, Zuko doesn’t,” Katara said clearly, almost more to Sokka than to Toph, as if it was his fault or as if he had started this whole conversation to begin with. After that one time he had done literally nothing for anyone to believe otherwise.

 

“Maybe he just had a bad childhood, I can’t imagine the prince of the Fire Nation growing up in an extremely loving house to be honest,” Toph replied, as if she was trying to defend Zuko. And it kinda worked.

 

_Maybe Zuko really just did have a terrible childhood._ Yea, that still wouldn’t excuse his behavior but it would definitely put things in perspective, for Sokka at least. Can you really expect a child to grow up good when their home situation is bad? He didn’t really know. But on the other hand, there’s no certainty that Zuko’s childhood was bad either. Maybe it actually was really amazing. Maybe his dad was a better father than he is a leader, or at least less cruel as a father. Sokka kinda hoped he’d get answers to these questions someday, no matter how.

 

“So, your soulmate is a boy? that’s-.. I guess that makes sense, I mean I-... Nevermind,” Toph began suddenly and cut herself off almost as quickly.

 

But Sokka was a curious person. “What?”

 

“No, it doesn’t matter,” she said. “I don’t judge you for it, it’s just not everyday you see something like that I suppose. Not according to my parents at least, because I clearly never see such a thing, no mo matter if it’s normal or not,” she waved her hand in front of her eyes again to prove a point.

 

“What kind of thing? How do you mean, judging? What is there to judge about?”

 

“The fact that your soulmate isn’t female?” she said as if it was the most obvious thing in this world.

 

Okay _now_ Sokka was confused. Very confused. “How do you mean, that’s a ‘thing’?”

 

“Isn’t it?” Toph replied. Katara looked almost as lost as Sokka was at this point, and Aang didn’t seem to fully comprehend either. Zuko’s gender was literally the least of their problems.

 

“Is that a problem?” Aang asked before anyone else could.

 

“Not for me it isn’t,” Toph defended. “But my parents said it’s not natural for anyone to start anything other than a male/female relationship…”

 

“Yea, well, your parents also think it’s normal to keep their daughter locked up forever because she’s blind, I don’t really trust their judgement in what they think is right or not,” Katara actually defended him for once, which was nice.

 

“Hey listen, I’m fully with you here. I never saw the problem either! I’m just saying what I’ve been told. I thought maybe others would’ve been told the same by their families..” Toph shrugged again. “Believe me, I understand why you’d be upset over it.”

 

Sokka had never even considered such a thing being unnatural or weird. _Was it?_ Maybe it was a cultural thing? Katara and Sokka had always grown up with the mentality that ‘love is love, as long as one of the parties doesn’t try to misuse the other.’ A healthy relationship was one that was free, and based purely on love, with both parties consenting for everything and both parties being old enough to make such decisions, no matter who the two people in the relationship were. That’s not to say everyone in their tribe liked both boys and girls, just that it wasn’t something talked about because it simply didn’t matter.

 

“That’s.. weird. Who would try to police other people’s relationships?” Aang replied. “We didn’t talk a lot about such things with the monks, but they definitely didn’t tell me something like that was unnatural…”

 

“Maybe it’s an Earth Kingdom thing?” Katara added.

 

Toph didn’t seem to keen on that. “Let’s just say, I hope it’s just a my-parents thing, rather than an Earth Kingdom thing.”

 

“I hope so too…” Sokka said before thinking.   
  
If it was an Earth Kingdom thing, there’s no way the Fire Nation would be any more friendly about it. _Maybe that’s why Zuko is such a jerk towards me._ Okay, probably not, but it still could be a factor. Sokka didn’t see any reason why people would look down upon non-’traditional’ (as they apparently seemed to be) relationships. Who would care enough about what someone else does in their live with someone else to get upset over that? That’s just… weird and invasive. Still, the Fire Nation was weird and invasive as far as he knew. It suddenly didn’t seem like a crazy idea that Zuko might have been shamed for his tattoo from the very beginning he got it. Of course, a boomerang could be used by female warriors, that girl with her blades, _Mai(?),_ didn’t exactly have extremely feminine weapons either, he supposed. But even then, he wouldn’t put it beyond the Fire Nation to shame people for something like that. The Fire Lord was a cruel person.

 

Sokka’s heart started to ache. _Stupid heart._ Just the thought of Zuko and potentially millions of people being shamed, or maybe even worse things, for something they couldn’t choose themselves… this world really is cruel. If the universe gave people tattoos for people of the same gender, then how could it possibly be looked down upon? The universe itself literally says it’s okay!

 

“So, still wanna know your tattoo?” Aang tried to lift the mood a bit after a while.

 

“Well, I guess it can’t be worse than his, right?” Toph pointed her finger into nothingness, where she probably thought Sokka was seated, and lightly laughed. “I think it’s here…”

 

She lifted up her right pant leg, and Sokka shuffled closer to see better. All three of them knew exactly who Toph’s supposed soulmate was from the second they saw the tattoo.   
  
On her leg were two medium sized yellowish fans with above it a headpiece, both clearly belonging to Suki. The fans could be any of the Kyoshi warriors, but the headpiece was clearly Suki’s alone. Well, Sokka definitely didn’t see that one coming. _So that’s why Toph’s parents told her these things about male/female relationships and didn’t want her to know the tattoo. They probably figured out her soulmate was a woman._ That thought made Sokka’s heart ache even more. Imagine not wanting your child to meet their soulmate because they are the same gender? That’s just… stupid.

 

“Well?” Toph became impatient when none of them said something.

 

“Toph, I think it’s-” Katara began but her brother quickly cut her off before she could mention Suki. Katara looked angry and Aang looked a bit lost, but both said nothing.

 

“It’s two fans and a headpiece. It looks pretty nice,” Sokka quickly said and Toph simply nodded, realizing the implications of his words.

 

“Guess running away isn’t the only thing my parents will be upset over…”

 

The conversation fell silent.

 

~~

 

“What was that all about?” Katara angrily whispered once Toph seemed asleep.

 

“What?” Sokka blinked a couple of times. He had almost fallen asleep himself.

 

“Why didn’t you tell her Suki is her soulmate? I swear Sokka, if it’s because you like Suki I-”

 

“Katara, chill,” he told his sister while rubbing his eyes. “I didn’t tell her because I didn’t think it’s the right thing to do.”

 

It wasn’t a lie. He had liked Suki, sure, but he also knew he couldn't give her what she needed. If Toph was Suki’s soulmate, more than anything, he was excited for the both of them. At least he knew his friends’ soulmates were good people.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Don’t you think she’d want to discover it herself? This is between her and Suki, we really shouldn’t meddle,” he argued. “They really need to figure this one out on their own.”

 

“I guess you have a point…” Those were nice words to hear out of his sister’s mouth, to be honest. One point for Sokka! “You really don’t care it’s Suki?”

 

“Honestly, Katara? No, I don’t. I just want the both of them to be happy,” he assured her, before turning around and going back to sleep.   
“Goodnight.”

  


“Alright, I believe you,” Katara said. “Goodnight.”

 

What he did regret from back in Kyoshi island however, was never asking Suki about having a soulmate in the first place. It had been for selfish reasons, he didn’t want to talk about his so he also didn’t ask about hers. He wished he knew what Suki’s tattoo looked like. Maybe the weird thing Toph wore in her hair, that’d be a good tattoo.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first block of text is set somewhere after The Chase and all the rest during The Serpent’s Pass

_ SOKKA _

 

Zuko was still alive, that was something. Sokka didn’t know how the other had showed up, and what he’d do now, but Sokka had to admit to himself that he did feel a certain amount of relieve knowing Zuko was somewhat okay. Especially after the whole swamp thing.  _ Ha! See! That swamp doesn't know everything! _

 

And Katara had even offered to help Zuko’s uncle! Of course the jerk didn’t take the offer, but still. He was impressed by his sister. To be fair, the old man seemed rather nice and smart in comparison to his nephew  

 

_ And Zuko’s hair looks even more amazing.  _ The ponytail might have looked a bit stupid, and sexy if you asked Sokka but that’s not the point, and it was pretty practical for hot kissing purposes, especially considering Zuko seemed to have a thing for that, but his hair now looked even better. And soft too. Yea, Zuko looked better than ever before. That was a bit scary. If he had already lost himself that one time in the woods, what would happen now? Hopefully Zuko wouldn’t stay around for too long. Not that Sokka couldn’t keep his hormones under control this time, but better prevent than cure, right? 

 

Zuko hadn’t been wearing any fancy Fire Nation clothes either, and his sister, which they now had confirmation that it was definitely his sister, apparently had taken over the ‘capture the Avatar’-job. If anything, his sister seemed to be a lot better bender, and a bit smarter too. No offence to Zuko of course, but his sister seemed pretty much unbeatable.  _ Must be hard to grow up with a sister like that.  _ Or maybe it wasn’t, but it didn’t exactly seem like they had an incredibly good bound between the two. Then it hit him that Azula had literally targeted her own uncle just so she could get away. Sokka started to realize Zuko’s family situation probably isn’t anywhere near as amazing as you’d think the royal family to be. 

 

Not only Zuko’s sister was a problem, her two friends were pretty scary too. The girl with the blades was all gloomy but, damn she was dangerous and the other girl was just so flexible and she seemed to know the human body enough to use people’s pressure points against them.  _ Chi blocking.  _ Yea they had met them before, but that didn’t take away from the scariness. 

 

_ Yup, these three after us are definitely worse than Zuko _ , he decided. At least Sokka didn’t get that distacting feeling when fighting them, he guessed he had that going for him. 

 

~~

This place was perhaps the last place Sokka ever would think to be reunited with Suki, and yet here they stood, about to board the ferry to Ba Sing Se. 

 

After a whole explanation about what had happened and why they were on their way to the Earth Kingdom capital, Sokka thought it was only right to formally end things with her then and there, in the nicest way possible of course. For Suki’s, Toph’s, and his own sake. 

 

“Hey Suki, can I have a moment?” He asked. Katara didn’t look very happy with this.  _ You better don’t do anything that could hurt Toph, _ her eyes told him. As if he’d ever want to hurt Toph or Suki. 

 

“What is it, Sokka?” Suki asked as soon as they were out of sight of the others. Her eyes looked bigger now the make up was gone, but it still looked a bit weird. Sokka had grown used to the make up, it added a certain charm. And surprise effect at the start of a battle if you don’t know about the Kyoshi warriors. 

 

He sighed. “Listen Suki, I really respect you and you’re amazing but I think-“

 

“We should stop this? Yea, I think so too” she simply said before he could even finish his sentence. 

 

“You do?” Sokka hasn’t fully expected this, to be honest.  _ I mean, who would want to break up with me? I’m a steal! _ But he was happy he didn’t hurt her in the process. 

 

“Sokka, I-... I’m sorry I never told you this before but…” she hitched up her right sleeve, revealing a tattoo of a flying boar. Yea, that made sense, although it was Toph’s family symbol, wasn’t that a bit too vague? Sokka guessed it was alright considering Toph seemed to be the only one near the right age-range in her family. His own idea of Toph’s headband still seemed better though. See, the universe doesn’t always know best!

 

Hadn’t Suki seen the symbol earlier when Toph was getting the tickets? Probably not. He wasn’t going to tell Suki either, for the same reasons he wasn’t about to tell Toph Suki is her soulmate. They’d figure it out on their own. How long could that possibly take? Even if Toph can’t see anything they’ll feel it, right? He had certainly felt something when he had met Zuko. 

 

Suki went on, “I have a feeling whoever it is is close…” 

 

“She probably is…” Sokka said before thinking.

 

“She?” She looked up. 

 

He mentally facepalmed himself.  _ Think before you speak.  _ “Or he. Or they. I’m just saying, your feeling is probably right,” he said as a smooth recovery, “you can really feel those things.”

 

Suki simply nodded. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

 

“Hey, don’t worry about it, actually-“  _ she has the right to know too _ “actually, I have one too.”

 

He lifted up his sleeve, revealing his. She gasped, recognising it straight away. “Sokka!” Suki looked straight up shocked. 

 

“Hey, it’s not my fault!”

 

“Prince of the Fire Nation? Well, I definitely understand why you didn’t want to tell me that one,” she slightly rolled her eyes before further inspecting the tattoo. 

 

“I didn’t choose him!” Sokka defended himself. “Listen, we both decided nothing would come of it. Defeating the fire lord is still our number one priority.”

 

“Alright, I believe you,” she still looked a bit worried. “Just… stay safe okay? No matter what you’re planning on doing.” 

 

Sokka felt his cheeks go slightly warm. “Yea yea”  _ Suki cared. Katara cared. Aang and Toph probably did too.  _ Sokka felt so lucky with his friends, honestly. 

 

Suki flung her arms over Sokka now for a tight hug. What a day. 

 

~~

 

“I have this weird feeling… that I really can’t explain,” Toph suddenly said while they were walking through the serpent’s pass. Sokka would’ve rather just taken the ferry, but that clearly wasn’t an option. He had been overprotective over Suki during the trip, he had to admit. He just couldn’t lose someone else he cared about, not after Yue, even if they weren’t romantically involved. No, everyone who he befriended on this trip for now on would survive, he had vowed to himself.

 

“We can’t exactly help you if you can’t explain,” Katara said. 

 

“Yea I have a weird feeling too!” Suki chimed in, “like some very important is close…” 

 

Sokka knew the feeling they were describing sadly enough. Wasn’t it obvious to them though? It had been pretty obvious with him and Zuko, but then again, he had seen Zuko’s scar pretty much straight away and the other got hit by his boomerang pretty much straight away too.

 

“Like, some greater force of the universe,” Toph said, “a certain… someone.”

 

“Seems like you two are the only ones with that feeling,”  _ how could they be this blind? Okay, how could Suki be this blind? And how could Toph be this deaf? And… non-feeling? _

 

“Strange,” Suki said, before that conversation ended. Sokka literally couldn’t believe this. 

 

~~

 

Even after Toph had kissed Suki’s cheek, they hadn’t put two and two together.  _ Seriously? _ Sure, Toph had thought it was Sokka’s cheek, but still. Didn’t they feel something? Like he had felt something when he had kissed Zuko? That might have been a much… more hands-on experience but even then. Maybe the dumb sparks he had felt really were a firebender thing?  _ Dumb firebenders and their dumb sparks.  _

 

Even Katara seemed close to losing it and just telling the two about the status. Sokka was pretty sure Than and Ying had noticed something too, but were just too polite to say anything about it. Aang had more important things on his mind, but in normal circumstances even he would’ve been getting annoyed, probably. Or maybe not, but in any case, Toph and Suki were being extremely oblivious. Sokka wished he had decided to tell Toph in the first place, but telling them now would be weird and rude probably. 

 

~~

 

Sokka had been sitting on some kind of circular piece of stone, looking at the moon,  _ Yue _ , and just thinking. His life had turned around so much since he had met Aang, it was crazy. And he had met so many new people he’d never meet otherwise. Would he ever even leave the South Pole if he had never met Aang? Sokka didn’t really think about leaving before, he didn’t really see the need to. But now he was still glad he had. 

 

“I know Toph is my soulmate,” Sokka suddenly hear Suki say behind him. He had thought everyone had been asleep by now, but he wasn’t really that startled either. They were with a lot now and not exactly in the safest conditions, so he doubted he was the only one who had trouble sleeping.

 

“You do?” He replied mildly surprised. 

 

“I’m not stupid!” She giggled. “Of course I know.”

 

“Why didn’t you tell her?” Sokka asked. “Aren’t you happy with her? She’s a good person!”

 

“I am, it’s just… she’s so young still. I don’t want her to think I’m taking advantage of her” Suki sounded pretty worried. He guessed he could understand that. 

 

There was a comfortable silence for a while, until Sokka spoke up again. “She wouldn’t think that,” 

 

“Still, I don’t know if right now is the right time.. I know the universe isn’t wrong about these things, but Toph still needs to make her own decisions. She’s too young at the moment to do so, in my opinion. Especially considering I’m almost 3 years older… it would be weird. No, we really have to wait.”

 

“You need to do whatever makes you happy” Sokka smiled, she was right and he knew it, and he admired her decision to do so. “The both of you still have all the time in the world to get to know each other.”

 

“Yea, we do. I think we better wait till she’s at least 16,” Suki decided. “You knew she’s my soulmate the whole time, right?” 

 

“Yea, we all did,” he admitted. 

 

“Thank you for letting me figure it out on my own.” Suki smiled and turned back around. “Goodnight, Sokka.” 

 

One sentence was stuck in his head though.  _ The universe isn’t wrong about these things _ . And what if it was?

 

~~

 

Suki had gone to bed about an hour earlier, but Sokka still couldn’t sleep. Lost in thought once again, he suddenly jumped when he heard Toph’s voice behind him. 

 

“I know Suki is my soulmate,” she said. “And I know that Suki knows. And that you all do too.”

 

_ Soulmates are a complicated matter, clearly.  _

 

“And…?” Sokka asked, more so asking for what her opinions on the whole matter where. 

 

“What do you mean, ‘and’?”

 

“What do you think of her?” 

 

Toph sat down next to him, thinking about it for a second. “I think she’s nice.”

 

“Are you gonna do something about it?” When did Sokka become the love-advice guy people came to? This is what happens when you stay up too late, everyone that can’t sleep comes talking to you. He was happy he could help his friends though, but he didn’t want to give wrong advice on a matter like this. 

 

“I don’t know, I’m sure she’s not acting it for a reason, and I want to respect that” Toph almost sounded  _ hurt.  _ A tiny bit at least. Did she think Suki didn’t want her?

 

“Suki just doesn’t want to hurt you,” he assured her. He wasn’t going to meddle, but he also wasn’t just going to let the both of them assume wrong things about the other’s intentions. “Your still very young, Toph. She just wants to be sure the both of you fully know what you’re doing.”

 

“Did she tell you that?” 

 

Sokka wasn’t sure whether he had to admit something like that to her, but he had said too much already anyway. “Yea.”

 

“I believe you,” Toph said. She yawned and stood up, “I don’t know how you do it, ignoring this feeling every time you see Zuko.”

 

Frankly, Sokka was glad he wasn’t the only one in this anymore. One of his friends finally  _ understood  _ the pain that came along with being soulbound to someone. It was a completely different situation, but them understanding the feeling was enough for him. 

 

“Zuko is an asshole, Suki isn’t,” he quietly replied. “The situations in which I see Zuko are different too.”

 

Toph nodded, suddenly having enough from this conversation. “well, goodnight.”

 

“Hey! And what about Suki?” 

 

“If she wants to wait, I understand. We’ll see how this all turns out.”

 

~~

 

_ ZUKO  _

 

He wouldn’t admit it, but he was happy to be reunited with his uncle. Of course he knew his uncle really cared for him, especially since Lu Ten died, but at the time leaving him behind just seemed like a great idea. Thinking through ideas wasn’t exactly his strong point, he knew that much.

 

_ Azula could’ve killed uncle.  _ Not that Azula ever cared for uncle anyway, she didn’t like anyone who actually cared for Zuko. He was still family though, and their father’s brother. 

 

What he wasn’t exactly happy about, was the fact that they were now on a ferry to Ba Sing Se, eating bland foods and living a refugee life. What could he possibly do in Ba Sing Se? It was the safest option, he knew, but that didn’t mean he was happy with the choice.

 

“I’m sick of living like this!”

 

“Aren’t we all?” A unfamiliar voice said behind him. “My name’s Jet, and these are my freedom fighters,” he explained with a slight grin on his face, showing off two other kids. 

 

~~

 

Zuko wasn’t really planning on stealing when he had turned his life around, but Jet had made a good offer; better food. Jet seemed like a pretty alright dude. Okay, Zuko’s mind was definitely clouded by the fact that Jet was pretty handsome. Very handsome.  _ Keep it together, Zuko.  _ He wasn’t going to act upon it obviously, he wouldn’t let himself. But Zuko was still a human with eyes. Jet being this handsome was a nice bonus. 

 

Nonetheless, actually becoming a  _ freedom fighter _ is too much, even for Zuko.

 

~~

 

Keeping it together didn’t fully work out, because the next night Jet had taken him somewhere out of sight and suddenly they were kissing and grabbing and  _ fuck. Why do I keep kissing people when I didn’t plan to? _

 

“This is a bad idea” Zuko said, not exactly stopping the kisses.  _ Kissing is always a bad idea, apparently.  _

 

“I’ve had worse ideas,” Jet breathed. 

 

Jet seemed more experienced than him, skillfully making their tongues dance as they stood there in the moonlight. Which could have been romantic, except that it very much wasn’t. Not to Zuko at least. 

 

But even with the experience and the fact that way less saliva was involved, it simply wasn’t the same. The kissing with Sokka had been out of pure want and heat and  _ need.  _ These were to drown out other feelings, and because Jet was pretty handsome and because it was Jet’s idea and he wasn’t exactly opposed to it so, why not try, right? What was Jet even getting out of this? At least it boosted his ego a bit, knowing someone wanted to kiss him even without the universe pushing them too. Too bad it was nothing like he had wanted.

  
_ This is a one time thing _ , he decided.  _ This isn’t worth giving my life up for. As soon as we get in Ba Sing Se, this’ll end. _

__


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zuko’s part is set during Lake Laogai till the end of season 2 and Sokka’s is set starting from The Earth King till the end of season 2

_ ZUKO _

 

The one time Zuko wasn’t actively planning on capturing the Avatar is when he finds out they too are in Ba Sing Se, because of course they are. And the Avatar had lost his flying bison…

 

Seriously, all those years of searching and then he just shows up? Pretty much presenting himself on a silver platter? Not that the Avatar knew Zuko was there, of course, but still. 

 

Well, that did explain the weird feeling he’d been having the past few days. Sokka was near, apparently. He always felt a certain feeling of proximity when the team was near, but he ignored it most of the time, or tried to at least because it was pretty distracting, especially now considering the fact that he thought the Avatar would never actually come to this city. He guessed it made sense, the Avatar had to find an earthbending master after all, and Ba Sing Se might be a good place for that. Although, last time he had seen them, a smaller girl in Earth Kingdom clothes was with them. He hadn’t exactly stopped to ask “hey, who are you?”, there were more important things at that time, like Azula almost killing his uncle for example. Team Avatar wouldn’t take someone with them if they didn’t think of them as important. Maybe she was an earthbending prodigy, like his sister had been when she was younger. Or maybe she was older than she looked. Or maybe she wasn’t even an earthbender and she was with them for other reasons. 

 

It didn’t matter why they were here though, or who that girl was, what mattered was the fact that they were close. Zuko would get to the bottom of this. 

 

~~

 

Of course his uncle hadn’t been keen on the idea, he hadn’t expected him to be either. Iroh always tried to talk him out of such things, and they had just found what his uncle would describe as  _ happiness _ or  _ the perfect life.  _ But those definitions didn’t line up with Zuko’s. He had to follow his own definitions of those words, for his own sake. 

  
  


“We have a chance of starting a new life here.”

 

But he didn’t  _ want  _ a new life. What was the point of having a new life? He had done so much in order to keep his life and all had failed. He had done too much already.  _ To hell with a new life.  _

 

He thought back to the day he had arrived in Ba Sing Se, and how things with Jet had ended very messily, with Jet finding out his a firebender and all. How long could he stay here unnoticed anyway? Zuko wasn’t ready to give up his bending yet and never practice it again, but practicing here was too dangerous. 

 

The only good part about Jet noticing the firebending was perhaps that at least now he didn’t have to end things between them himself, because that would be awkward, but he did feel a bit bad about Jet getting arrested. How bad could it possibly be though? They wouldn’t throw him in jail over this, right?

 

“I suggest you think what it is that you want from your life,” Iroh had said, and then made the great mistake of bringing up Sokka. “The Avatar is here. Maybe you can drop this whole chasing and become friends with them? Just imagine, you could see your soulmate-“

 

“I DON’T WANT A SOULMATE!” Zuko yelled. “I want my destiny!” And later he added in a smaller voice, “and as if they’d ever want to be my friends after all that I did.”

 

How could his uncle still be so naive about everything? Hadn’t he lost enough to know love gets you nowhere in life? 

 

“The universe choses your soulmate for you, that literally means that he’s your destiny!” 

 

His uncle didn’t understand. The universe was wrong. Sokka wasn’t his destiny, or not his main destiny either way. Zuko didn’t need the universe to tell him what his destiny was no, he could find that himself. He  _ knew  _ that himself. 

 

~~

 

Another fight between him and his uncle occured when he was trying to capture the Avatar’s bison, down in some secret bunker under a lake. 

Zuko wasn’t even sure how his uncle had gotten there to begin with. He himself had sneaked in following a few agents, but he was good at breaking into places. Zuko couldn’t imagine his uncle being all that suble with such things. Either way, he really wished he hadn’t, and that he could do this all on his own.

“Is it your own destiny, or a destiny some else tried to pose on you?” He hadn’t seen his uncle this angry before, and frankly, it was a bit scary. 

 

Zuko didn’t exactly think this through, he was right about that much. What he was supposed to do with the bison once he had him, he didn’t know. Even if he catched the Avatar, he’d never get back to the Fire Nation, he didn’t have any way of transport and he would probably be arrested from the moment he set food on Fire Nation grounds. And he doubted the bison himself would fly them over to the palace of the Fire Nation. 

  
  


But it didn’t matter, he’ll figure it out. “Isn’t the destiny the universe has for me also a destiny posed on me by someone else? I didn’t decide that one either!” 

 

All this destiny talk really became too much. Was destiny even a real thing? Should it be taken into consideration when doing things?

 

“I’m begging you Prince Zuko, it’s time for you to look inwards, and begin asking yourself the big questions. Who are you? And what do you want?”

 

And that made him snap.  _ Look inwards.  _ Anger boiled up inside Zuko. So many thoughts and feelings suddenly flooded over him. Thoughts he had never let himself have. Thought he had shoved far far away to never think of again. Now, it almost felt like someone had opened some kind of gates in his brain and all the thoughts just flew through it, millions at a time. Thoughts about betray and love and friendship and family and honor and soulmates and his culture and everything he might have ever know. It was too much to bear, his head racing.  _ Make it stop! _ He felt himself scream and drop the swords and mask. It was almost as if his body was doing things he didn’t want it to do and he dropped on the ground panting. Panic and anger took over his head. 

 

All these years he had lived perfectly fine, fueled on anger and the hope of ever getting that throne he had the right to have one day and nothing more. And it just a few months, everything slowly crumbled, until now when the whole wall just  _ fell down on him  _ and the weight was crushing his lungs and heart and brain.  _ How many people did I hurt for my own good? I am no better than Azula, _ he suddenly thought. It was funny, wasn’t it? He thought his life would turn around for the better once he had found the Avatar, once they knew he was actually still alive, but instead everything just got 10 times worse. 

 

He sat there 5 seconds, 10 seconds, maybe 20 seconds, before something finally  _ snapped _ and the weight suddenly lifted and the gates in his brain suddenly closed again with only one clear thought still stuck in his head:  _ uncle is right.  _ It was a stupid plan to begin with. He couldn’t do anything with the bison or the Avatar. Zuko had to put that part of his life behind him or it would eat him alive. He’d get crushed under the weight sooner or later if he kept this going. Sometimes you  _ did _ have to give up for the greater good. 

 

“Your right uncle,” he felt himself stand up and grabbing the swords to go closer to the bison, who seemed very defensive (and rightfully so) only to cut away the chains he had been in. Zuko had never felt this  _ calm.  _

 

After the final chain, Appa roared at him. Zuko wasn’t sure if it was a  _ thank you  _ or a  _ touch Aang again and you die  _ or  a  _ I am going to stomp you to death in a second _ , but he was still glad he had freed the bison in the end, feeling a tiny bit of proudness in himself. “There you go, buddy” Zuko whispered so silently, he wasn’t even sure if he had actually said it out loud or just in his head, but he patted the bison lightly before it roared once more and took off. 

  
  


His uncle was smiling at him once he turned around. “You did the right thing, nephew,” he sounded proud. Zuko sincerely hoped he had made the right decision for once in his life, but for now, his uncle’s pride was enough. 

 

~~

 

Turns out, doing the right thing makes you really fucking sick.  _ This is it _ , he thought,  _ this is how I die. By doing the right thing. How ironic.  _ It was a foolish thought of course but it made sense at the moment. He had never felt this sick. It wasn’t even like a fever or any pains he had ever experienced, no, it was something much worse.

 

His whole body felt like it was burning, as if he had set it on fire from the inside. Like when he had gotten the scar, but all over his body, and as an ongoing pain. 

 

A spiritual metamorphosis, his uncle said. Was setting a bison free worth feeling this bad? Was the few minutes where his whole body felt nothing but calmth worth it?

 

While his body was sweating everything out, he felt like he hadn’t drunk any water in the past 10 years. His tongue was beyond just dry, Zuko didn’t even know a person could be this dehydrated.

 

The burning kept going, and he felt feverish like never before.  _ This isn’t worth it. This is what hell looks like.  _

 

Zuko kept slipping in and out of fever dreams, most of them ending badly. Visions of his mother, dragons with Azula and Iroh’s voices, him as Fire Lord. What did all of these mean? His uncle would know, but he didn’t have enough strength to completely tell him the dream before slipping into another one. 

 

The next fever dream was a bit different. Zuko was still Fire Lord, but this time he saw Sokka and him by the pond in the palace, feeding turtle ducks like he had with his mother, Sokka leaning his head on Zuko’s shoulder. Katara, Aang, and whoever that little girl was were there too, sitting the opposite side of the pond. It felt too perfect. Sokka snuggled closer in his side, and Aang and the other girl were giggling about something while Katara was doing some water bending trucks. His uncle was handing out some tea to the other three. Everything was so domestic and peaceful. 

 

But perfect isn’t a word to be associated with Zuko’s life. It never could be. 

 

“Zuko, I really need to tell you-“ Sokka had started leaning in closer and Zuko could almost feel his breath in his neck, before his eyes suddenly turned angry and he shouted, “I hope you know we all hate you! You have done nothing but bad for us and for this world!”

 

He stood up, overshadowing the Zuko while the other three were coming closer clearly looking very angry, ready to unleash their bending on him, and Sokka ready to unleash his boomerang. Zuko felt like he was 3 centimetres tall and about to face a bunch of giants he could never take on, and frankly, didn’t even want to take on. He couldn’t fight Sokka, or anyone for that matter, like this. 

 

“No, please, I’m sorry, I set your bison free, didn’t I?” He pleaded towards Aang. “Uncle!” 

 

His uncle came closer now too, only to say “they’re right you know, Fire Lord Zuko,” before turning his back and walking away again. 

 

“YOU TRIED TO HAVE US KILLED!” Katara shouted and flung all the water in the pond straight on him.

 

Zuko shot up awake, heavily panting, needing a second to take it all in. He was awake. It was just a dream. It didn’t really happen. What did all these dreams mean? 

 

He was  _ so thirsty  _ and everything just  _ burned _ . 

 

He thought back to his dream. Of course team Avatar hated him. Could he even blame them at this point? He probably deserved everything they would’ve done to him. Did his uncle think of him badly too? Before he could even call his uncle for some water, everything went black. 

 

~~

 

When the fever finally vanished, Zuko felt like a completely different person. Pure positivity streamed through his veins for the first time in years, or maybe for the first time in forever. He wasn’t sure where life would take him, but that didn’t matter now. His destiny was here, in Ba Sing Se with his uncle who cared for him as if he were his own son, in their very own tea shop. Life was looking good for once and his uncle looked happier than ever. Zuko couldn’t help the smile that creeped on his face. Maybe he could have more luck in other aspects too. 

 

~~

 

Zuko had been a downright fool to think life was suddenly gonna come easy to him because of some  _ positivity _ . Of course Azula showed up, because ruining his life was clearly her thing.

 

So that’s how he got stuck in a cave with Katara, of all people. 

 

He didn’t blame her for getting angry at him. And he did genuinely feel bad about the Fire Nation murdering her mother. Losing a mother is something he painfully could relate to. “That’s something we have in common then.”

 

That hadn’t been an attempt to win Katara over. He’d never use his mother for such reasons, she deserved better. Nonetheless,  Katara’s eyes softened for a second. 

 

“My brother deserves better than you, you know that?” She barely sounded angry anymore, more defeated, or like she was just stating a fact (which she was). 

 

“I’m aware.” Zuko admitted. 

 

She didn’t drop it just yet. “He deserved all the love in the world and he’s still stuck with you as his soulmate!” 

 

“Listen, it’s not like it was my choice either.”

 

“Oh, so you’re too good for him?” She accused him now. He mentally kicked himself. Of course that hadn’t been the right thing to say! But what other choices did he have?

 

“No, it’s just that… I really don’t deserve a soulmate in general,” Zuko admitted. “And Sokka deserves a good one.”

 

Katara seemed like she wasn’t sure what to say. 

 

In the end, she apologized for getting angry. Zuko didn’t think he deserved an apology. 

 

Something in him did want to win over Katara, become friends with the whole of team Avatar, apologize for what he had done in the past, maybe even build a bound with Sokka. 

 

~~

 

Katara was one of the first people he had ever let touch his scar. Zuko didn’t know why he had done it, but regret washed over him as soon as he had seen Azula and the promises she fed him. 

 

Deep in his heart, he knew his uncle was right. Azula was nothing but a good strategist and they had fallen in her trap once before. 

 

He had changed, hadn’t he? Wasn’t that where the days of sickness came in? For his true spiritual metamorphosis? Was that all for nothing?

 

What did he wants from life? A tea shop or his throne?

 

In the end, his head told him to take the offer. He had to fight the Avatar once again. And this time, with Azula by his side, there was no way they wouldn’t win. He  _ was _ going home, no doubts about it anymore. Home to the Fire Nation and the palace and his father. 

 

~~

 

_ SOKKA  _

 

“I feel… faint,” Sokka said while on their way to to show the Earth King the drill in the outer wall. He couldn’t believe the guy didn’t even know what was going on in his own city! What kind of king never leaves the palace? But that wasn’t the point right now. He felt like his skin was vaguely burning, but not really. Like when you’re in the sun for too long, except there barely was any sun and his whole skin was burning, even the spots covered up. And he felt  _ thirsty _ for some reason, and lightheaded. 

 

“Are you okay?” Katara asked worriedly. “You want to go back?”

 

“I don’t really feel sick but…” Sokka started. It was weird feeling really, like he wasn’t sick, but someone else was and he was feeling part of it. Like a tiny piece of his soul was sick. “It feels like I’m feeling someone else’s sickness.” He explained, knowing how dumb it sounded once it escaped his mouth.

 

“How can you ‘feel someone else’s sickness?’,” Toph asked, not believing much of it. “No one of us are even sick.”

 

“I don’t know, I think-“  _ Zuko. Zuko is sick. He must be. And really badly too, otherwise Sokka wouldn’t be able to feel it.  _ It was like he suddenly saw a vision of Zuko, laying in an apartment room with a very bad fever. The vision only lasted a second. This had to be one of the weirdest things about the whole soulmate thing, for sure. “Nevermind, it’s nothing,” he assured the group, not wanting to tell Katara he can literally feel that Zuko is not only probably pretty near, but also very sick. She didn’t need that extra bit of worry. He didn’t tell her back when his tattoo started to burn up when he was younger either. 

 

Toph looked like she was on to him, but didn’t say anything about it. Maybe she could tell because it was a soulmate thing. Meanwhile, Sokka did his very best to shove the feeling away as far as he could. Toph lightly patted him on the arm.  _ She knows.  _

 

Silently, Sokka still hoped Zuko would be okay.  _ He has to be.  _

 

~~

 

Sokka’s, or rather, Zuko’s sickness or whatever it was, was getting better and that just in time for him seeing his dad, for the first time in what literally seemed forever! He couldn’t contain his excitement even if he tried. It had been so long. 

 

Katara had given up her place so he could go, which he was incredibly thankful for. Sokka wished there was a way where the both of them could’ve gone to meet their father.  _ Soon _ , he decided.  _ The war will be over soon. No matter what. The eclipse is coming.  _

 

~~

 

“So, you’ve been all over the world?” His dad asked during a moment of peace after everything had been explained and said. It felt surreal being able to talk to his dad like this. Man to man. Father to son. Only a few moments prior he had explained the plan for the day for the eclipse and his father seemed so proud. 

 

“Yea! We went to the North Pole and Ba Sing Se and Omashu and-“ Sokka excitedly began. 

 

Hakoda smiled. “So you’ve met a lot of people then?” 

 

“Yea! It’s been kind of hard traveling with the Avatar at times, a lot of people apparently would rather see him dead… but we’re managing!” Sokka proclaimed proudly. 

 

“So… have you met your soulmate yet?” The high Sokka had been on quickly came crashing down. Why did people always have to ruin the moment with their soulmate talks? “I’m sure you’ve met a lot of people affected by the Fire Nation,” he referred to his tattoo, having thought the same as Sokka that his soulmate definitely wouldn’t actually be a firebender at all. 

 

It was normal for a dad to ask about these things, of course, but that still didn’t make it a pleasant topic to discuss. 

 

He couldn’t lie to his dad, could he? Not now at least.“Yea, I’ve found him and dad… it’s not who you think it is,” he admitted, while looking down. “You won’t like it. We don’t either.” 

 

“How do you mean?” His father looked lost. “And don’t say  _ ‘we’ _ , the only one who gets to decide on that matter is you, Sokka.”

 

“It’s,” Sokka waited a moment. Should he really tell him this? What if his father got angry?  _ Why would he get angry? It’s not your fault! _ But what if it’s a disappointment to hear your son is soulmates with a person like Zuko? He wasn’t as scared for his father getting angry, he was however getting scared about his father being disappointed. “It’s Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation.”

 

“Ah, I see,” Hakoda pressed his lips into a thin line and Sokka felt his face go red a bit. “Well, I trust your good judgement,” he finally said. 

 

“What?”

 

“I’m just saying, I trust your good judgement,” he repeated. 

 

“What does that even mean?” Did he think they were actually together? Had Sokka accidentally implied that?

 

“It means that, you clearly don’t like him now and understandably so, but if it ever happens that you do, then I trust you,” he said as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “To make the right decisions.” 

 

“You wouldn’t disown me if I got together with  _ Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation? _ ” Sokka was downright shocked. Okay, he didn’t think his father would ever really disown him, but still. Giving his ‘permission’ for him to date Zuko, even after all what Zuko and his family had done…

 

“The universe chose you two for a reason. It might seems cruel now, but who knows what will happen in the next year, or 5 years, or even 10 years? He could be a totally different person. We all could be,” Hakoda said. “I remember when I met your mom, there was just such a strong feeling, like some greater force. I’m sure you understand now what that means.” 

 

Sokka only nodded, feeling like it was the only thing he could do right now. His father looked like he wanted to go on with talking about his mother, but the memories were still too much for the both of them. This wasn’t the time and place, so he went in on the Zuko-matter instead. 

 

“And if you end up with someone else, that’s fine too. You need to do what makes you happy, Sokka. I trust you,” his dad patted his head slightly and smiled. “But people make mistakes, especially people as young as him. I can’t imagine what it is like to grow up in a household like that… he’s probably been through things. That doesn’t excuse any of it, but he could genuinely potentially change for the better one day. Or maybe he won't, we don’t know that yet.”

 

“But mom-“

 

“Zuko didn’t kill your mother. Maybe he would’ve if he were in the position to, we never can predict such things. Maybe on this case, he deserves the benefit of the doubt. But your mom would want you to be happy, always.” He assured his son. “Your mom would also trust you in making a good call for yourself.”

 

Sokka had never even thought before today about his dad’s possible reaction to his soulmate, and it certainly wasn’t what he had come here for either. He never even thought he’d see his father soon enough to tell him. But in no way would he have ever thought it’d go this well. If anything, now he was just more lost. Things would be easy if everyone in his life just assured him that no, Zuko couldn’t be trusted, not ever. The whole soulmate thing was just clouding up his mind. 

 

_ Dad trusts my good judgement, _ he repeated in his head. For now, that good judgement said they still couldn’t trust Zuko. What had Zuko done to deserve such trust anyway? Katara’s safety and Aang winning from the Fire Lord were still his number one priority, as they should be. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> set at the begining of season 3 ^^

_ ZUKO _

 

It was weird, being back home. All these years have passed, and it feels like nothing has changed but at the same time like everything had. A certain emptiness that Zuko couldn’t quite place crawled inside him.  _ Why do I feel empty? I have it all back! All I’ve ever wished for right within reach! _ Yea, maybe he did know what the empty feeling was, but he definitely wasn't ready to admit it. Not even to himself. 

 

So there he sat, in the dark in front of the palace. He didn’t know why he had thought that was a good idea. Sneaking out was a whole task on its own with all the guards around. But he didn’t need protection from the guards, not after these past three years. If he wanted to go outside, he would. And if he could sneak into some bunker in the middle of a lake, he could sneak out of the royal palace too. 

  
  


“Hello, Zuko” Mai said from beside Zuko, startling him. He had been so engrossed in thoughts he hadn’t heard her footsteps. 

 

“Mai! How are you doing?” He lightly patted the piece of ground next to him, but she shook her head, not seeming too keen on the idea of sitting on the ground in the dark like this. 

 

Things have always been slightly awkward between the two of them, most of it being Azula’s fault honestly, but also partially his own. 

 

“The usual. Bored. Listen, Zuko-“ she started, but Zuko cut her off. He felt himself standing up to face her to make it a bit less awkward. 

 

“Sorry Mai, but I don’t think this is going to work. I-“

 

“You like boys, yea, I’m aware,” she rolled her eyes, leaving Zuko shocked. Had it been that obvious? Except for the time with Sokka in the woods and the time with Jet on the ferry he had never acted upon it, and there was no way she saw either of those two, right?  _ How does she know? _

 

“You are?”

 

Mai nodded. “Azula told me about your tattoo.”

 

Of course she had. Since arriving back home, he had barely thought about his tattoo or Sokka at all. Only in the middle of the night in the privacy of his own bedroom he’d trace the soulmark with his fingers, playing images in his head of things that would never happen. It wasn’t the nicest thing to do towards Sokka obviously, but he was still human. He had to do this, going back home, shouldn’t his soulmate understand that?

 

“Well, maybe I like both genders!” Zuko defended himself, knowing that wouldn’t be much better in the eyes of the Fire Nation. 

 

“Zuko, you worry too much,” Mai said as if she didn’t just start this whole conversation. 

 

“You would too if you liked girls!” It was a dumb response and he was aware of it but it seemed like the best defence he could come up with. 

 

“And what if I do?” Nothing in her voice sounded like she was making a joke out of it or mocking Zuko. Still, you can never be too sure. She crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow, as if to say  _ you still didn’t realize? _

 

“You do?” 

 

“Have you seen Ty Lee?” She sounded somewhat embarrassed this time and looked away, but still had her arms crossed and an uninterested look in her eyes most probably as a coverup. 

 

Mai and Ty Lee? He needed a second to wrap his head around that one. Why were the gloomy ones always attracted to the happy and excited ones? Was there some kind of science behind that? He guessed it made somewhat sense though. Zuko had to admit, Ty Lee was pretty and fun to be around too. He guessed they balanced each other out. And he was happy to know he wasn’t the only one too. 

“Does she know?” Zuko wondered. 

 

Mai didn’t seem too happy with that question though (not that she ever looked all that happy). “Of course she doesn’t!” 

 

Zuko nodded. Why was she even telling him this? She was putting herself in danger trusting people with her secrets. Sure, she had known basically the same secret about him, but his was already in hands of Azula and his father, much worse things couldn’t happen. 

 

“Listen Zuko, I’ve come here to make you an offer you can’t refuse,” she began, “or you can, I don’t really care. But I recommend you don’t.” 

 

“I’m all ears.”

 

“You like boys, I like girls, neither of us can be open about it. You see where I’m going with this?” She explained. But Zuko didn’t really see where she was going with that. Why can’t people ever get straight to the point instead of being all vague and stating facts leaving him to come to his own conclusions on the matter. 

 

“Uh, can you explain some more?” He tried not sounding too dumb. It was late, okay? And he had barely slept the last couple of days. 

 

She sighed, “I don’t hate you.”

 

“Thanks?” This conversation was all over the place. 

 

“And I hate a lot of people. In fact, I don’t hate only you and Ty Lee. I guess I can live with Azula on most days, she’s alright,” she kept going. “At least with her I’m not that bored anymore.”

 

“Uh, again, thanks? I don’t hate you either?”

 

“So here is my proposal. We get a fake relationship.” She said, as if she had just told him the weather for today or something else totally mundane. 

 

What would Zuko need a fake relationship for? “What would I-“

 

“It’s a good cover up, isn’t it? Azula won’t pester you about your soulmate, Ty Lee won’t notice me looking at her or won’t draw conclusions. Seems like a good deal to me,” Mai shrugged. “There's nothing more behind it, I just think it could benefit us both.”

 

Well, if she puts it that way… it  _ did _ seem like a good deal. Zuko knew he should be getting a relationship with a girl soon either way before rumours started to spread. This was way less cruel than give some girl hope and make her believe he actually liked her. 

 

“You have a deal,” he stuck out his hand after a few moments of thought and she just smirked.  To be honest, this whole thing was pretty awkward but he appreciated it nonetheless. 

 

“So, uh, how did you find out you like women?” Zuko wondered after a while of silence. Was that a rude question? Was he being too invasive?

 

“Have you seen women?” Mai almost snorted, almost. “I guess it doesn’t do much for you but…”

 

He pressed his lips into a thin line. “Fair enough”  

 

“How did you find out you like men?” Mai asked then, not exactly sounding like she really wanted to hear an answer, but like it was a polite thing to ask. Honestly, Mai wasn’t so bad at all. Zuko wasn’t sure whether she really felt like she looked all the time or like she just was extremely good as suppressing her own feelings towards the outside world, but she wasn’t a bad person, and not really a boring person either. 

 

Zuko grinned. “Have you seen men?”

 

Mai faintly smiled. Silence fell between the two again. 

 

“Do you and Ty Lee share a tattoo then?” Zuko broke the silence again and knew he had made a mistake right away.  _ If she had, she would’ve said so, you dumbass!  _

 

“No,” Mai didn’t sound extremely upset by it. “It’s fine, I don’t believe in greater forces of the universe anyway, and neither of us have a tattoo so.”

 

Zuko nodded. He wish he didn’t either anymore, but it was too strong to ignore. He vaguely wondered how many people in the world didn’t actually get a tattoo. He had thought it would be a very small number, but lately it seemed like quite a lot of people didn’t. Maybe about 35% that didn’t get a tattoo? Yea, that number made sense. Still the bigger part of the population did. 

 

“Let’s call this deal… women-loving women and men-loving men solidarity,” she said sticking out her hand this time. 

 

He couldn’t help but smile. “Women-loving women and men-loving men solidarity,” he repeated and slightly shaking her hand, before they both finally went home. 

 

_ This wasn’t such a bad idea _ . 

 

~~

 

“I think Azula is onto us,” Zuko said. It had been a couple of days since the deal and since then they had been hanging out quite a bit and he had to admit he was having quite a good time. 

 

Mai was a fun person in her own special way. She was great in minimizing things, which did help most of the time. It almost seemed like she understood his struggle, but not fully. Zuko wasn’t sure if he fully trusted her yet, she was a friend of his sister after all, but he had a good feeling about it. He never really had friends before, and especially not the last few years. 

 

“Who cares?” 

 

“Why would we have this whole deal if we didn’t care?” Zuko argued. 

 

Mai sighed. “Okay, you’re making a point.” They were sitting in the sofa at her home, pretty close, but not uncomfortably so. “Still, she’s weary of everything, we better get used to it.”

 

“I guess…” 

 

A comfortable silence fell between the two of them, and then something Zuko had thought about only once before started nagging at him again. “Hey, do you think it’s possible for someone to like both men and women?” 

 

Mai shuffled around in the sofa, trying to find a more comfortable position to face Zuko. “Why? Does your soulmate have a girlfriend?”

 

“According to uncle he did,” Zuko tried to not think about his uncle too much, it was still a sore subject. But Iroh simply  _ didn’t understand _ . He had to do this. “Not anymore though. She died, I think.”

 

Mai didn’t press on about his uncle, or about the dead girlfriend, which he was grateful for. “Makes sense to me that people could like both,” she finally decided before sighing. “Seriously Zuko, you worry too much. The universe isn’t going to give you someone that doesn’t even have a tiny possibility of liking you in them. Oh and by the way, according to Azula, he’s rather handsome.”

 

“He is,” Zuko simply said, wanting to drop the soulmate conversation. 

 

He pressed his lips together, debating whether he should tell her this, but he ended up saying. “I don’t think the Avatar is dead.”

 

“Didn’t you kill him?” Mai said in her  _ seriously, stop worrying _ -voice. 

 

“Azula did,” Zuko admitted. The mere fact that Azula had given him all the credit was enough for him to believe the avatar was very much not dead at all. “She gave me credit for it.” He debated again before adding. “One of his friends has some special healing powers and magic Spirit water, or something like that.”

 

Mai nodded, understanding the implications of his words. Azula never did things without a reason, and never did things that wouldn’t benefit her in the long run. “If I were you, I’d find a solution to that as soon as you can…” even her voice sounded troubled now. 

 

~~

 

Azula had set up a trap and he had walked straight into it, like always. He shouldn’t have admitted to visiting his uncle in prison, but Azula had sounded… sincerely worried for once. Like she was actually watching out for him. Like she didn’t want Zuko to visit his, no  _ their _ , uncle only because it could end really badly for him.  _ Azula always lies _ . 

 

He couldn’t stop seeing his uncle, he felt too guilty to do so, even if he could never actually respond or even look back at him. 

 

Zuko wished Mai had never left in the first place, so he wouldn’t have had this conversation, but he also understood detangling Ty Lee’s hair was much more interesting than a picnic with him. To her at least. 

 

~~

 

Zuko felt sick, standing there in the moonlight, commanding an assassin to kill the Avatar for him. The dude looked scary, which made sense, and Zuko knew the Avatar had to be killed in order for him to keep this all and not face an even worse wrath from Ozai. It’s not like he could go out and go kill him himself! People would notice he was gone. 

 

Still, his heart almost beat out of his chest.  _ I thought I had changed. Can I really send an assassin to a bunch of kids? _ To be fair, he had been basically an assassin to a bunch of kids not even that long ago…which he honestly wasn’t proud of. Okay yea, he never really planned on  _ killing _ the Avatar, he would just be reborn anyway, but what he had done wasn’t a lot better either. It’s only now everyone thought Aang was dead, he actually had to be killed. 

 

Still, he couldn’t stop himself from saying “wait!” When the guy had turned around. “Don’t-... don’t hurt the others. Especially not the Water Tribe boy.”

 

Not that Sokka would see it as some kind of romantic gesture that he commanded an assassin to kill his friend but not him. But Zuko didn’t need forgiveness or thankfulness or even for Sokka to be happy. No, he just won't be able to bear the feeling he’ll probably get once his soulmate dies. Another selfish reason for a selfish person. What would his uncle say? He couldn’t bring himself to think about that. Iroh had been refusing to even look at him ever since they were back, and that was just because of a betray. If he knew he sent an assassin after the Avatar, even after all these things, after freeing the bison, after getting sick in Ba Sing Se over this whole thing, he’d never want to see Zuko ever again. He felt absolutely miserable at that thought.  

  
  


~~

 

_ SOKKA _

 

Katara had trusted Zuko for just a minute and payed the price, apparently. His sister kept telling him how they couldn’t trust him, not ever. But Sokka admitted, only to himself, that he did think Zuko was somewhat of a changed person. Not fully, but at least a tiny bit. 

 

It was foolish, he knew. But Zuko wouldn’t have let her touch his scar otherwise. He hadn’t even been allowed to do that on the ship, and he had a literal tattoo on his body of the thing! 

 

_ His uncle seems like a good person _ , he reasoned.  _ And he seems to have spent a long while with him.  _ He must have learned something, right? 

 

The fact that Katara had trusted him, even for a moment, actually gave him a tiny bit of hope for a sudden change in character. Sure, he had pretty much ruined it all straight after, but Zuko’s internal battles weren’t Sokka’s to fight. 

 

And after that vision of Zuko lying sick in his apartment, ever since then he had been feeling  _ different _ . He wished he could explain this whole thing better, or that he could talk to any of his friends about it. Sokka didn’t want them to think he’s a traitor or even remotely on Zuko’s side, because he simply is not, but he did have a tiny spark of hope for Zuko to ever change around, even if he’s now back home doing all his Prince-y things. 

 

~~

 

“I bet you all want me to have a Fire Nation boyfriend now!” Sokka joked once Aang had finally returned from  _ school _ and declared he wanted to go back the day after.  A Fire Nation school! Seriously, what was Aang thinking?

 

Katara clearly didn’t think of it as very funny and glared at him. 

 

“Hey, I’m just saying, we could really use someone who is more familiar with the customs of this culture,” he shrugged. “And a firebending teacher would be nice too.”

 

Katara was still glaring. 

 

“I didn’t say it had to be Zuko!” Sokka said in defence, clearly not making it any better. 

 

“Sokka,” his sister warned him sternly. 

 

“Alright, alright, shutting up,” he knew better than to go on. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it literally looks like I have no life, updating this fic every day and all but I had everything fully drafted out before I even started posting the first chapter so ^^


	10. Chapter 10

_ ZUKO  _

 

Being on a holiday to Ember Island was pretty much one of the last things Zuko wanted to do right now, leave alone with Ty Lee, Mai and his sister.  _ Smoothing even the most jagged edges.  _ Phu. And how was it going to do that? This whole place is just water and sand, nothing magical that will suddenly make his whole life switch around! 

 

~~

 

Zuko sat down next to Mai on the beach, who looked almost as unimpressed with this whole thing as he was, handing her an ice cream as he sat down. 

 

“I thought since it’s so hot-,” he started, accidentally dropping the ice cream on to Mai who now looked even less impressed. 

 

“Thanks, this is really refreshing,” she replied dryly looking for some tissues or something to clean off the ice cream. Yea he really should’ve looked out better with that. He wanted to help her but didn’t see how, so he just awkwardly sat there watching Mai fixing this mess.  

Mai could be considered a real friend of Zuko’s by now.  _ A friend.  _ That was a pretty new concept to him. Yea, he kind of always had his sister and Ty Lee and Mai, but it was different now. He really trusted her. In return, she seemed to trust him pretty fully much too. They had spent quite a bit of time together after all, to keep up the act but also a bit as an ‘escape’ from him home situation of some sorts. 

 

“Hey,” he said, looking in the same direction she had been glaring at before he came and dropped the ice cream on her, only to see Ty Lee and a bunch of boys around her, who were clearly trying to impress her. “You okay?”

 

“Why wouldn’t I be,” Mai said normally, not letting her voice betray her. “It’s her life, she can do what she wants.” 

 

“You’re not angry about it?” 

 

“What do you want me to do? I have no rights being angry over it.” She rolled her eyes. It sounded like she didn’t even care! “She’s not mine.”

 

“Why don’t you tell her something?”

 

“Oh, I don’t know Zuko, why don’t you go kiss one of those dudes over there?” Mai nodded her head towards a group of boys around his age on the other side of the beach, before looking away again. 

 

It had been stupid to suggest it in the first place. Ty Lee was constantly surrounded by boys and constantly talked about boys. Not only would Mai put herself in danger by saying something, the chances of it being worth it were way too small.  _ Some people like both, right? _ Still, it’d be dangerous. Both Mai and Zuko knew. He wished Mai had more luck in her love-life than he did. 

 

~~

 

“Just take off your robe, you’re gonna die of a heatstroke,” Mai sighed as Azula called them over for a game of kuai ball. 

 

“I can’t!” taking off his shirt hadn’t exactly been an option anymore since he was 10, not in public anyway. She knew that fully well, didn’t she? 

 

“Come on, no one cares enough about your tattoo,” she rolled her eyes. “They all have their tattoos on show,” she nodded towards another group of people a bit further, but Zuko didn’t really feel like inspecting their tattoos to see if they were deemed appropriate or not. 

 

“You don’t understand!” He yelled way too loudly instead, feeling himself getting angry. Did Mai really think he could just take of his robe and parade around with a fucking boomerang tattooed on his ribcage? The yelling clearly wasn’t his best idea however because suddenly half the beach had turned their heads towards the two. Seriously, couldn’t they just mind their own business?

 

“Okay, then don’t,” Mai crossed her arms in annoyance. 

 

“Zuko, just take of the robe,” Ty Lee tried too, having witnessed the whole conversation. “It’s fine!”

 

Even his sister agreed. “We’re going to win this and if you faint of a heatstroke, I swear-...”

 

Zuko cut her off with a groan. “Urg, fine!” And threw of the robe. There. 

 

He heard a few girls a bit further snickering, which he wasn’t sure if it was about the fact that he was shirtless or about the tattoo, and a couple of guys laughing too, which was most definitely about the tattoo. His cheeks got red, knowing fully well Ty Lee and Mai were seeing his tattoo for the first time ever as well, even if they already knew who his soulmate was was either way. “Happy now?!” 

 

Mai crossed her arms and didn’t say anything in response. Ty Lee pretended like she wasn’t inspecting the tattoo, even though she was. Azula started explaining their tactics for the game. Once they started, no one was laughing anymore. 

 

~~

 

Zuko didn’t want to go to this party.  _ Parties are for normal teens. Nothing about my life has ever been normal.  _

 

Seeing his sister flirt with Chan was downright painful. He wasn’t exactly an expert on the matter, but he knew saying someone’s outfit looked ‘sharp enough to puncture the hull of a Fire Nation empire-class battleship, leaving thousands to drown at sea’ wasn’t really something that would win over anyone’s heart. As if these guys didn’t dislike them enough already. 

 

Not that he was one to talk about how to flirt well. 

 

Once the party had started Mai got bored pretty quickly and so did he.  _ Seriously, why do people go to these things? For fun?! _

 

“I’m bored,” she said, as if it wasn’t clear enough already.

 

Zuko, being the good pretend-boyfriend that he was, decided to get some food for her. 

 

He noticed Ty Lee being surrounded by even more guys but she didn’t seem that happy with it either now. 

 

Whatever, she would manage. 

 

After lashing out on someone for making him spill the food he was carrying, he noticed Mai sitting on the sofa, and another dude clearly taking interest in her. She looked bored as ever of course, and thinking she probably didn’t exactly want this guy talking to her, Zuko decided to go save her from the awkward situation she was in.

 

~~ 

 

Okay so, shoving the guy into a flower pot maybe wasn’t the smoothest thing he’d ever done, but hey, it had gotten the job done, right? He could just play it off as being a jealous boyfriend, considering their deal and all, and it would be all fine. 

 

“Thank you, I guess,” Mai said, not exactly sounding all that thankful. 

 

“You didn’t seem to impressed,” Zuko noted. 

 

“Do I ever?” 

 

Hey at least she knew of her resting unimpressed-face. “I guess not.”

 

“Zuko, your temper is out of control,” she suddenly said. Where did that come from? He was always calm! 

 

“It’s not!” He yelled back. 

 

Okay  _ maybe _ he could see where she was coming from. 

 

“Then don’t believe me for all I care,” she folded her arms. “But you better learn how to control it, before you hurt someone for real.”

 

As if Zuko hadn’t hurt anyone before. Obviously he wasn’t proud of it, but what could he do?

 

Only a few moment later, he got thrown out of the party for breaking the vase.  _ Stupid party.  _ He wasn’t planning on staying anyway. 

 

~~

 

Things were burned that shouldn’t have been burned, and words were said and shared that have never should've left their mouths. Him calling Ty Lee a circus freak, Mai saying Ty Lee just wants attention, Ty Lee talking about Mai’s gray aura, Zuko saying Mai doesn’t believe in anything,... but they were too far gone now. Emotions flooded Zuko’s heart and soul, he couldn’t stop his ranting anymore. 

 

“I just feel so angry!” He admitted in anger, not even thinking about his words. 

 

The other three asked him who he was angry at, which he couldn’t stand because  _ he didn’t really know _ , except that he kind of did. 

 

“At your uncle?” 

 

“At father?” 

 

“At me?” 

 

“Who are you angry at, Zuko?” All of their voices started morphing together in his head as they kept asking questions and it just became  _ too much.  _

 

“I’m angry at myself!” He shouted, letting all the anger get out of him in the form of a big fire, as it it drained all the energy out of him. It was dangerous and he knew it, but around them was only sand anyways and he really couldn’t control it. 

 

No one said anything for a couple of seconds after. 

 

“I think you know what you should do to stop being angry at yourself,” Mai said quietly her eyes telling him more than her mouth. Zuko knew what she was implying. “And I do too.” She stood up came to his side and hugged him tightly, an unexpected but not exactly unwelcomed gesture from her. “I think you know what to do,” she repeated. 

 

To Ty Lee and Azula this just looked like a hug between a couple that had just made up. But Zuko knew better.  _ Women-loving women and men-loving men solidarity  _ he smiled in his head as he melted into Mai’s embrace. And then suddenly he somewhat  _ understood. _

 

_ Jagged edges have been smoothed out.  _

 

He wasn’t sure if that was true or not, but he had to figure things out. 

 

Azula clapped. “Well, what a wonderful performance.” 

 

~~

  
  


_ SOKKA _

 

Okay, the Fire Nation had officially reached a new level of crazy with that combustion man. Who the fuck can blow things up with their mind? That’s beyond insane!

 

“Say what you want, but I’d rather have Zuko after us than all the others that have been hunting us down lately,” Sokka argued. 

 

“Sokka is right,” Aang said. “Zhao had too much power over others. Azula and her two friends were all three such strong fighters. And now this… how will we ever escape a man like this? This is crazy!”

 

“I wasn’t even with you guys when you were being hunted down by Zuko, but man, I want him back,” Toph whined. 

 

Katara, clearly didn’t agree with the group on this one, even if she had once agreed with that statement a few weeks back. Ever since Ba Sing Se, she was even more angry about the whole thing which was fair enough,, but still. “Yea well, at least Sokka didn’t suck face with any of those others!” 

 

Aang gasped and Toph started to smirk and Sokka just stared at her.  “Well, well, and no one filled me in on that event taking place?” Toph lightly (which, considering it’s Toph, was still pretty hard) hit him on the arm and laughed. “Well done in getting someone to kiss you!”

 

Sokka went beet red in an instant. Did Katara really need to bring this up? It had been so long ago, it’s not like he was just sticking his tongue in Zuko’s mouth any time they met!

 

“Toph,” Aang whispered, trying to warn her to cut it out, but it was too late already. 

 

“Good job? GOOD JOB? You think he did a good job with that? What’s wrong with you people!” Katara threw her arms in the air out of anger. 

 

“Hey! I said it was a one time thing and it only happened once!” Sokka defended. 

 

“I don’t trust Zuko! Or your hormones anywhere near Zuko!” Katara went on, getting closer pointing her finger into Sokka’s chest. He could very vaguely feel her nails digging in his skin through his shirt.

 

“My hormones? My hormones? They have nothing to do with this!” He bit back. “Maybe if you had a soulmate, you’d understand!”

 

This was a low blow and he knew it, but he didn't regret it for the moment at all. 

 

“Guys, I think-“ 

 

“SHUT UP, TOPH!” The two shouted at the same time. 

 

“Maybe if your brain wasn’t so clouded by the whole soulmate thing, you’d understand!” Katara defended herself. “You’re bringing us in danger!”

 

“And what have I done to show I don’t understand, that I bring you in danger, except for that one time a long while ago?” Sokka back said in anger. 

 

And then there was a silence. 20 seconds passed, which felt like literal hours. Katara retreated her hand in favour of crossing her arms.

 

“Nothing, I guess,” she replied in a small voice, unable to look her brother in the eye now. 

 

“That’s what I thought,” Sokka folded his arms too and sat down, also looking everywhere but his sister, anger boiling inside him.  _ Why couldn’t she just understand? _

 

“Well, this is awkward,” Toph said in an attempt to somewhat lighten the mood. 

 

“Look, Sokka,” Katara began, ignoring Toph’s words and sitting down next to him. “I’m sorry I’m still upset over this.”

 

Aang awkwardly shuffled, feeling like he shouldn’t be witnessing this whole thing in the first place. 

 

“It’s find, I see what you mean,” Sokka finally gave in. Because he did. He had some kind of weird trust in Zuko for whatever reason even if he didn’t want to and even if his sister didn’t know about it.

 

“Sokka, I’m sorry, it’s just since Ba Sing Se… Zuko sounded so sincere but then he turned his back on us and-” she said again, suddenly pulling her brother into a tight hug. Sokka felt her breath hitch in her chest, like she was going to cry, which he definitely didn’t want to happen. “I do trust you,” she finally whispered. “I just want to protect you!”

 

“Hey, leave the protecting to me, okay?” Sokka said with a small laugh. 

 

“Okay, I trust you to make the right decisions,” Katara said afterwards, having completely calmed down now. 

She really just cared about him, he knew that. 

 

_ I hope I don’t ever have to betray that trust.  _


	11. Chapter 11

_ ZUKO  _

 

Zuko hadn’t stood up to his father for his soulmate, for Sokka. No. He wouldn’t blame Sokka in the tiniest bit if he never wanted anything to do with him ever again. But Zuko finally knew what his destiny was now. He had to help the Avatar defeat his father, even if it’d cost him his own life. It was the only right thing to do. 

 

The last couple of days had been a mess. Discovering that this ‘Fire Nation vs the world’ war hadn’t only been fought all over the world, it also had been fought within himself. His mother’s side and father’s side clashing against each other. Two so principally different ways of thinking, of living, of morality. 

 

In the end, it was barely a question of what he’d do. His mother had been so good to him, and his father, well… for the first time in his life, Zuko admitted his father never cared for him in the first place. He might have cared for making a suitable heir to the throne, but not for Zuko himself. Years of both his and his uncle lives he had waisted. He wish he could go tell his uncle.  _ I finally figured it out! I finally found my destiny!  _ But that didn’t seem like an option anymore. 

 

It didn’t matter now, he was going to make his uncle proud either way, even if he would never get to know. Do what his mother would want him to do. Leave everyone that didn’t care for him behind.  _ Do the right thing.  _

 

Leaving Mai perhaps had been the hardest. Zuko had broken a deal after all, and she was his friend, but she would understand, right? This is for the greater good, right? He really should have told her face to face, but there was no time for that, he couldn’t stay in the Fire Nation any longer. 

 

_ Your throwing away your family and your throne for that Water Tribe boy _ , his father had hissed at him, with a look of disgust in his eyes. He tried not to think of that,  _ what does father know anyway.  _ Ozai had literally tried to kill him afterwards. 

 

_ At least my three years of Avatar finding can come in handy now _ , Zuko thought. He had to find the Avatar, and he had to teach him how to firebend. He couldn’t possibly be far away, as soon as he got this warballoon working he could just follow Appa as subtle as possible, not that that was gonna be very easy with a war balloon. 

 

Zuko had never felt this calm and determined either way. 

 

~~

 

Thinking plans through clearly wasn’t one of his best skills. 

So he had found them, great. And what now? Just walk in there, proclaim “I’ll be your firebending teacher!” And act like he didn’t want to capture him for the past few months? _ What happened with the assassin I paid to kill him anyway? Maybe he’s not as good as people say after all _ . Zuko was extremely glad for this, he probably wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he had actually killed Aang or anyone of the group. 

 

“Hello, Zuko here!” He practiced.Did he really believe that was gonna cut it?  _ Dumb dumb dumb.  _

 

The temple had brought up memories from just after his banishment, memories he was ashamed for. He traced his scar with his fingers, feeling the rough skin.  _ I should’ve realized father’s intentions the moment I got it.  _ But he had been 13 at the time. Young and naive. Maybe he still was those things on certain things, like naive to think the group would actually accept him. Nothing would make right what he did in all those years, but he could at least try to ease the pain. 

 

What would his uncle do?  _ What would Azula do? _

 

He could feel Sokka was near, and he knew Sokka could feel the same. That would definitely blow his cover. Maybe they’d come looking for him, thinking Zuko was here to capture Aang again. Or maybe Sokka wouldn’t tell the others. Maybe Sokka somehow knew he was good now. Kind of. He was trying, okay?

 

He thought back once more about when he had felt a piece of Sokka’s pain when, or at least that’s what Zuko assumed, their mother had died. Could Sokka feel parts of his pain? Had he felt the burning of the skin of his face? When he had gotten so sick in Ba Sing Se that he thought he’d die for a minute? He hoped not. He didn’t want to cause Sokka any more pain than he already physically had. That’s why he made a resolution right then and there. Zuko wouldn’t try anything with Sokka and keep his distance from him. For Sokka’s sake. If that’s what the other wanted anyway. 

 

~~

 

Of course that didn’t work. The only good thing was the fact that Appa seemed to trust him, and Aang loved Appa more than anything in this world, right? He was pretty sure that’s how guide animals worked anyway. 

 

“I’m good now,” that hadn’t even sounded very believable, but what else could he do?

 

“ _ How stupid do you think we are?” _ Katara was right, especially after what happened in Ba Sing Se. No one in their right mind would’ve trusted them if they were in their situation. 

 

Saying he had hired the assassin was truly one of the stupidest things ever. Why did he have such bad human skills? Why was he so bad at being good? 

 

What could he do now? He had come here to teach the Avatar,  _ Aang, _ firebending. He couldn’t give up on that now. He had to do it, for his uncle’s sake, as well as for his own. 

 

“ _ And if we ever see you again,... well, we better never see you again!”  _ Katara’s words stung. 

 

And Sokka had looked so hurt and defensive… 

Zuko had to figure it out. 

 

_ Combustion man _ , Zuko slightly snorted when he remembered the name Sokka had made up for the man. That definitely sounded like something Sokka would come up with. 

 

~~

 

_ SOKKA _

 

Sokka couldn’t stop thinking about what Azula had told him on the day of black sun. 

 

_ “My brother likes you, you know?”  _ She had said just when Sokka, Aang and Toph were about to leave to look further for the Fire Lord _. “He’s just too stubborn to admit it. It’s a shame, really. You two could make quite the couple,” _ her words didn’t exactly sound very sincere, but it was hard to tell with Azula.

 

She had smirked when she said it too. Sokka knew it was a trap to keep them there, and it had worked too, but he still wondered if it had some truth behind it. Knowing her, probably not. Did he want it to be true? Perhaps a little bit. 

 

He was happy neither Aang nor Toph brought it up again afterwards and just stayed out of it. 

 

~~

 

So Zuko was back, offering himself as a firebending teacher to Aang, that’s a thing. Of course Sokka had known Zuko was near, and of course he didn’t tell anyone because he didn’t want to scare them. They would deal with when Zuko actually visually showed up, but Sokka definitely hadn’t expected the other just… offering himself to them. Zuko had definitely  _ seemed _ sincere, and Sokka didn’t get any feelings that told him Zuko might have been lying, but as far as he knew that wasn’t one of the perks of being soulbound anyway. He couldn’t rely on feelings, not when everyone he cared about was in danger. 

 

Even so, no one (except for Toph apparently), would’ve taken Sokka’s side either way, so it’s best to shut up about the whole thing in general. 

 

They had been arguing over the whole thing for much too long now, and Sokka’s rational part of his brain was arguing with the part of his brain that had been clouded with all this soulmate talk. 

 

Toph was right though. Aang did need a teacher, and Zuko seemed willing to help. Sokka wasn’t exactly an expert on the matter of fire bending, but Zuko was probably pretty good at it. A family member of the Fire Lord can’t possibly be bad at bending. 

 

“Come on Sokka, didn’t you feel the sincerity?” Toph pleaded, apparently very much being in favour of having Zuko teach Aang the most dangerous skill he could think off. What did she know about it? She hadn’t been chased by him for months!

 

“Why are you asking me? I can’t feel vibrations when people are lying!” He said defensively. 

 

“But he’s your  _ soulmate _ , you must have felt something!” 

 

Sokka didn’t reply for a few moments, and Katara’s angry glare turned a bit softer when she asked, “well, did you?” Sounding not anywhere near angry, just curious about it. 

 

“I, I don’t know,” he admitted. “It did feel sincere yes, but can we really trust this weird feeling from the universe on this matter? Or more so, the lack of bad feeling?”

 

“Yes, we can!” Toph said almost straight away. 

 

“No we can’t,” Katara said firmly before Sokka could. 

 

“But Katara, you don’t understand! I can feel he wasn’t lying,” Toph argued. “And besides, you don’t understand, being soulmateless and all.” It was a low blow, and Katara looked back sternly at her, not that Toph would be able to see that anyway, before Sokka cut in to not totally start a full-blown fight between the two.

 

“Listen Toph, Azula is an amazing lair, wasn’t she? I’m sure it runs in the family.”

 

“I trust Sokka, but if he himself is on the verge about it…” Katara said softly. 

 

“I’m not having Zuko as my firebending teacher,” Aang finally said, ending the conversation straight away. 

 

“Sometimes I wonder who the blind one is around here!” Toph stormed off. In the end, Sokka knew she had been right all along. 

 

~~

 

And then suddenly, Zuko was fighting off combustion man, pretty much putting his own life at stake just to save them. 

 

“I’ll pay you double of you stop!” Zuko fough. It was an unfair game really, combustion man was twice the size of Zuko, he could probably just fling him of the cliff in an instant. 

 

_ Fuck, Zuko looks hot when he’s fighting someone that isn’t us _ , flashed through Sokka’s mind for a second. No, this wasn’t the moment to think about Zuko’s slightly toned muscles fighting off the way too big man. His mouth went a bit dry. As Zuko slid right off of the edge of the building his heart stopped for a moment and he could feel himself holding in his breath, before his head yelled at him to hurry up and get everyone in safety so they too could start fighting. 

 

~~

 

This time, it was almost impossible to not believe Zuko. He had saved them, after all. Even if he was the main reason combustion man was after the group in the first place. 

 

Zuko had had a rough childhood and Sokka knew it., it wasn’t an excuse really, but he guessed it did make sense. He could feel a slight tingling of his tattoo that he tried to ignore, but couldn’t.  _ He’s telling the truth, no doubt about it.  _

 

~~

 

“So, here you go, home sweet home,” Sokka said, showing the other his room. It was awkward, being alone for the first time in so long, and his heart made a little backflip which he definitely had to ignore. “I guess, you know, for now.”

 

Zuko placed his belongings down, turning back to face Sokka. “Listen, Sokka I-“

 

“I know, I know. This changes nothing between us,” Sokka cut him off. He was sure that’s what Zuko wanted to say at least. Sokka wasn’t quite sure if he himself wanted this to change anything. The things Zuko did could never be undone, but he did feel like a genuinely changed person,  _ but wasn’t it a bit too early to tell? _ So yea, maybe Sokka did want something to happen, but Zuko probably wouldn’t and he didn’t need that kind of humiliation of being rejected. 

 

Zuko looked like he wanted to say something for a second, before he pressed his lips together in a thin line and just nodded. He went to sit on the bed, staring at the ground, looking a little hurt. Maybe Sokka had read this whole situation wrong? What if Zuko did want things to happen?  _ I shouldn’t have cut him off, we should really talk about this.  _

 

“You got sick in Ba Sing Se, didn’t you?”  Sokka asked instead, even though he hadn’t been planning on asking that, but he had no brain-to-mouth filter, and it had been on his mind for a while now. 

 

Would it be weird to sit on the bed with him? It’s weird holding a conversation like this, wasn’t it? After a small inner debate, Sokka decided to sit next to him, leaving some free space between the two. 

 

“How did you know?” 

 

“I… had a vision that lasted like a split-second?” Sokka explained. Is that weird? Isn’t that a soulmate thing after all? Had he just imagined things? “And I felt sick too for a bit.”

 

Zuko nodded again. “I guess you can feel such things,” he said. “I think… I think I felt it when your mother died.”

 

Sokka could feel his eyes grow bigger. “You did? But I hadn’t even gotten my tattoo then!” His mother had died only a few months before he turned 10. Sometimes he’d wonder what she’d have to say about this whole thing, but it probably wouldn’t be far off from what his father had said. 

 

“I had only just gotten it,” Zuko explained. “I felt some kind of dull heartache. That’s when uncle explained soulmates can sometimes feel each other’s pain.”

 

“Your uncle seems like a smart man.”

 

“He is,” Zuko slightly smiled and  _ damn, Zuko looked so good smiling.  _ Zuko smiling was something Sokka wanted to see forever, he never wanted said smile to disappear. Something was building up in his chest that he tried his best to ignore. 

 

“I felt it when you got scar,” Sokka said in a moment of dumbness, single handedly wiping away the smile from Zuko’s face, regretting it in an instant. 

 

“It was a painful experience…” Zuko responded quietly. 

 

“I know,” Sokka looked at his scar. He was all too familiar with the shape of it, with the amount of times he had traced his tattoo… but this was different. This was an actual scar. A reminder of Zuko’s past. Something Zuko had to live with, and on his face too. “Can I-“ Sokka said without thinking, reaching forwards to touch Zuko’s scar once again. To be honest, he had fully expected him to slap away his hand once again like in the ship that first day, but he didn’t. 

 

Zuko slightly nodded, waiting for Sokka’s fingers to touch his tattoo. The scar felt so… real, because it  _ was.  _ Some kind of energy went through the whole of Sokka’s body, and he knew it went through the other’s too. He didn’t pull away just yet, trancing the whole scar, feeling every single spot of it. 

 

This was so intimate. Way more intimate than that time in the woods. This was Zuko’s weak spot and the both of them knew it, and yet Zuko let him touch it. Okay, he had let Katara touch it that time in Ba Sing Se as well, but this was different.  _ Would we get this same kind of electrifying feeling if Zuko touched my boomerang _ ? Okay, that was a stupid thought. This wasn’t about tattoos or soulmates anymore. This was about Zuko laying all of his insecurities right in front of him, Zuko fully trusting him. How could he possibly not trust him when everything felt so real? For a second, he had an inexplicable need to place a gentle kiss on Zuko’s scar, which would probably weird the other out so he kept it for himself. Maybe now was the time to ask how he had gotten it in the first place, something he had been wondering for a while now,  but that would probably ruin the mood too. 

 

“Am I interrupting something?” Katara’s voice was suddenly heard and Zuko actually  _ jumped _ as if he had been struck by actual lighting, scrambling onto his feet. 

 

“I- no- no no-, we were-, uh-,” he tried. “like-”

 

Sokka snorted at how Zuko was trying to talk himself out of it. 

 

“Save it, Zuko,” she glared at her brother. 

 

The moment had been so  _ real _ and so  _ intimate _ and now it was gone. Sokka didn’t know if he could ever get this feeling back. If he would ever let it back.

 

“We’re gonna need a moment, Sokka,” she said, her eyes clearly saying  _ get out, I need to talk to Zuko right now.  _

 

Sokka nodded and left, quickly looking over his shoulder at Zuko, who looked pretty terrified of his sister.  _ It’s not like Zuko has had a lot of luck with sisters in the past. _

 

He’ll survive. Katara cared, he knew, and she wouldn’t flat out kill Zuko or something like that. Probably give him a stern talk about this whole mess that no one else was going to give him anyway, which he kind of needed. 


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Boiling Rock part 1

_ ZUKO  _

 

He was glad that everyone seemed to accept him now, really glad. He was also glad he got to teach Aang his firebending, finding a new way of bending from the dragons in the progress. Being constantly angry really wasn’t healthy, and his bending not depending on it anymore freed him even more from his previous life. He hated to say it but Mai definitely had been right about his anger issues. 

 

Katara was still hostile of course, which was to be expected.  _ If you break my brother’s heart, I will break all the bones in your body, and that’s best case. Worst case is, you won’t live to tell. So you better don’t ever do anything of that sorts _ . 

 

This whole thing could’ve gone a lot worse.

 

Zuko could still feel Sokka’s fingers gliding over his scar a few days back when he thought about it, the other exploring every inch of skin that had been burned three years ago. He had never felt like anything he had felt in that moment, it was beyond surreal. It hurt his heart just thinking about it. 

 

Ever since then, the two hadn’t spoken that much with Zuko teaching Aang to bend and all, which was definitely a priority at the moment. Yesterday they had sparred with their swords, and Sokka really had become pretty good at it, but the others were nearby so there wasn’t any privacy. It was nice, getting to hang out with Sokka in a friendly setting.The others honestly were nice enough too, but being like that around Sokka felt different. Sure, it was sad they hadn’t had any time alone yet, they really should talk about certain things, but it did seem like some kind of mutual trust was forming. 

 

“Hey, can I talk to you for a second?” Sokka asked one night. The nightly ‘sitting around the campfire and telling stories and laughing’ had been a nice experience, one that Zuko never thought he’d ever have. 

 

Sokka looked troubled, indicating it wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation. Katara’s glares that burned on his back were ignored as he nodded and stood up. 

 

“So what’s up?” Zuko asked, once the others couldn’t hear them anymore. 

 

“If someone were to be captured by the Fire Nation, where would they go?” 

 

So that what this was about. It was dark outside and the light from the campfire barely reached them, but Zuko could still clearly see the look on his face. 

 

He couldn’t tell Sokka what he knew, giving him the heartbreak that was the truth. The Fire Nation wasn’t friendly towards its prisoners, especially not the ones that had tried to overthrow his father-,  _ Fire Lord Ozai.  _

 

“It’s my dad, he was captured too,” Sokka said, a tiny hint of pleading in his voice. “It was my fault he was captured.”

 

That just made it worse. If Sokka got to know the horrible place his father was probably send to, he would just blame himself. 

 

But Sokka looked just looked so… sad and Zuko really couldn’t bear it. 

 

“My guess is, they were taken to the Boiling Rock,” he heard himself say without wanting to. Knowing what he had done by saying this, he could almost hear the gears starting to turn in Sokka’s head, coming up with a crazy plan that would probably never work. He’d go there in search for his father, no matter what Zuko said or how little information he provided, so he provided Sokka with the information he needed to know, knowing it was too late now anyway. It was better that way than being vague, leaving the other to figure things out on his own. Besides, if Sokka had a plan, so did he. 

 

~~

 

“Not up to anything, hu?” Zuko asked once he saw Sokka crawling onto Appa, resulting in the other falling from surprise. He had sat there for a while now, knowing Sokka would arrive sooner or later. It’s not like he was someone who needed a lot of sleep anyway, luckily, so staying up and waiting for him really hadn’t been a problem. Especially lately sleeping had become difficult for some reason. Either way, it came in handy now. 

 

“Fine, you caught me. This is unfair! Stupid soulmate thing!” Sokka scrambled up, collecting everything that had been dropped during the fall. 

 

“I couldn’t tell because I’m your soulmate, I could tell because you were being obvious!” 

 

“Listen, I have to do this,” Sokka said. “You can’t stop me, Zuko,” sounding somewhat hurt and angry. 

 

Seeing him this upset really tugged at Zuko’s heart, if he was being honest. 

 

“Believe me, I get you. I’m going with you,” for a second Sokka’s eyes looked like they softened before turning determined again. 

 

“No. Just because we’re soulmates doesn’t mean you have to risk your life for me. We’re not even-,”  _ together.  _ Not finishing the sentence, swinging his bag over his back. 

 

“This isn’t about soulmates,” Zuko assured him. “How are you going to get there?” He said, knowing that was a very a valid point. 

 

Flying to the Boiling Rock on Appa as pretty much a suicide mission to begin with, but he had a plan. And a war balloon. Especially a war balloon. Sokka didn’t argue anymore. 

 

Only fully registering now what they were going to do, Zuko’s heart dropped in his chest for a moment. If something happened to Sokka on the way there, or on the way back, or even while there, he would never forgive himself. He should’ve never said anything about the Boiling Rock to begin with, but now it was too late anyway, he promised himself he would get back safely. 

 

~~

 

_ SOKKA _

 

Yea, this was awkward, being stuck on a war balloon like this. 

 

“Pretty clouds,” he said, to lighten the mood. 

 

“Yea, fluffy,” Zuko awkwardly replied. 

 

All the intimacy of a few days before had been gone, and even if either of the two wanted something to happen now, it couldn’t. This mission was too important, and Zuko understood this too. Now would probably be a perfect time to actually properly talk about certain things, but Sokka couldn’t bring himself to start that conversation. 

 

Zuko really looked good since his… changing sides let’s say. Maybe that’s what being a good person does to people, make them prettier. Sokka innerly groaned, did he really need to get even more handsome? That was just unfair. 

 

~~

 

It was a dangerous conversation, about the past and people they cared about. Not the conversation Sokka had wanted to have, but it at least came somewhat close. 

 

At least they were getting to know each other, something normally soulmates did after meeting. Better late than never, right?

 

Zuko talked about his uncle with so much regret, Sokka couldn’t help but feel sad for him. “I think your uncle would be proud. You left everything behind to help us.”

 

“It wasn’t that hard,” he dismissed. 

 

“You didn’t leave anyone you miss behind?” Zuko had to had at least someone he cared for, right? At least a friend or something? 

 

“Yea well, I had a … friend,” Zuko’s voice sounded a bit strange. “Mai.” He looked away, almost ashamed. 

 

_ Mai.  _ What was there to be ashamed about having a friend? Seriously, Sokka really didn’t understand him sometimes. 

 

Before he could say anything, Zuko snorted and went on. “We were uh,... in a relationship I suppose.”

 

“Oh-,” a tiny pang of jealousy that he ignored went through his chest. It’s not like they were acting on the soulmate thing, why should he be jealous over this?

 

“A fake one, at least,” 

 

Okay, that was confusing. A fake relationship? Why would Zuko do that? When does anyone ever need a fake relationship? Sokka thought back to the conversation he had had with Toph, about her parents not being in favour of anything but male/female relationships. 

 

_ Oh.  _ Sokka had guessed it was like that in the Fire Nation too, but hearing confirmation still was hard. 

 

Still, he didn’t want to draw conclusions too quickly. “why?” Maybe there was a completely different reason, like how Yue had been married off to someone else for political reasons. 

 

“Well, I don’t really like…” he made some big arm movements out of awkwardness, which was kind of stupidly cute in some way, before finally saying “girls,” and looking away, clearly ashamed of it.  _ Seriously, why?  _

 

“Oh, okay.”

 

“And she doesn’t really like… uhm” more big arm movements. “Boys.”

 

“That’s cool.”

 

So it really was about that. 

 

Zuko didn’t drop it yet. “You actually might’ve met her before. She’s friends with Azula? She uh… is good at throwing blades.”

 

Well, that made sense.  

 

“Ah yea, I know who you mean, she seemed nice. I mean, not when you’re fighting against her, but you know,” he wasn’t about to insult Zuko’s friend. 

 

“And she kinda likes uh… the really flexible one? That can block bending and people’s? Ty Lee?” 

 

That made a bit less sense, but hey, Sokka wasn’t gonna police anyone’s love life considering the mess he himself was in. It’s not like he actually knew either of the two, or could judge over something like that. 

 

This whole conversation about relationships, even fake ones, was getting a bit awkward though. 

 

“I’m familiar with her too, yes.”

 

“They’re not bad people, I swear!” Zuko quickly said. “Ty Lee just follows Azula around. She was in the circus first, but I think my sister might’ve forced her to come back. And Mai is just chronically bored with life, but like not in a bad way just in a … Mai-way.”

 

Would it be weird for Sokka to start talking about his love life? Wasn’t Zuko somewhat allowed to know about it? If they were gonna be honest about things and talk about the past...

 

“My first girlfriend turned into the moon,” he then blurted out. 

 

Zuko looked a bit shocked for a split second, more so by the fact that Sokka had brought it up so suddenly rather than the actual information itself. “That’s rough, buddy,” he said before waiting for a few seconds to add, “Actually, my uncle kind of told me about that.”

 

Of course Iroh had. 

 

A long silence stretched between them, before Zuko awkwardly broke it up, staring at the ground. “So, uh, do you like, you know, like boys?” 

 

Sokka blinked at him, as if he hadn’t fully heard the question.  _ What kind of dumb question is that _ ? “Obviously?” He asked. Wasn’t it obvious? They were literal soulmates! 

 

“Ah”

 

“What, is that a problem to you?” Was it? Sokka became defensive. Seriously, what is with people and this whole thing? Why did people care so much?

 

“No! No of course it’s just-... I didn’t know… that was a thing,” Zuko finally said, lifting his head in panic, thinking he had said something wrong. “Liking both and stuff, we don’t exactly learn about these things.”

 

“Such kind of relationships aren’t exactly celebrated in the Fire Nation, are they?”

 

“No,” Zuko looked away. “If anything, they’re pretty much close to being illegal. Over most of the Earth Kingdom too I think, but they’re getting less strict on it.”

 

There was the confirmation for what Sokka had guessed. His heart ached for all these people, but he didn’t show it, and just nodded. 

 

“It’s not where you live?” Zuko asked, like that was a whole new concept to him,  _ because it probably was.  _

 

Sokka slightly grinned. “No, where I come from, we don’t care who people sleep with.”

 

He saw Zuko go red at the mention of ‘sleeping with someone’, which was pretty funny if you asked Sokka. 

 

“So, have you ever done something with someone, uh, like you know, that thing we once did that one time,” that was an awkward question and Sokka wasn’t even sure why he had asked it in the first place honestly. He had just gotten curious for a second, not exactly pining Zuko down as one to go around kissing people left and right but you never know, right? Still, Sokka felt his cheeks heating up at the thought of what they had done, and the concepts of  _ Zuko  _ and  _ kissing _ . Probably bad karma for laughing when the other started blushing earlier. 

 

“Uh,” Zuko began before stopping himself and looking somewhere else uncomfortably.  _ Good job Sokka, you made things even more awkward.  _ “I guess I did, kind of.”

 

He did? Really?  _ Why? Was it better than that time? _ Again, Sokka tried to ignore his own jealousy. 

 

“Ah, cool,” he awkwardly replied. Okay, he really wanted to ask for more information but that’d be even more awkward, wouldn’t it?

 

“His name was Jet,” Zuko said anyway as if he didn’t know what else to do, as if it would make things less awkward. 

 

_ Jet?  _ Zuko had  _ kissed Jet _ ? Frankly, Sokka wasn’t even sure on his opinions of Jet anymore, the first time they had met him he wasn’t exactly a fan of the guy, and then the whole thing in Ba Sing Se happened… at the end of the day, Jet was just a kid like the rest of them, wasn’t he? 

 

Still.  _ Zuko kissed Jet.  _ “In Ba Sing Se?” Sokka asked knowing fully well they were talking about the same Jet, but you can never be too sure, right?

 

“Uh yea,” Zuko confirmed. “You know him?”

 

“Let’s say that, yea,” Sokka snorted. 

 

“Did you two also…-“

 

“No! No, we didn’t,”  _ Jet and I. No thank you very much.  _ To be fair though,  _ Zuko and Jet _ was about just as much of a weird concept honestly, especially with how anti Fire Nation Jet had been. But then again, he might hadn’t known about that. 

 

“Oh, okay.”

 

“But Katara did,” he said as clarification. 

 

“Oh cool,” Zuko said, checking on the fire again to keep the balloon up. “It wasn’t like… very good or something. Not like it was bad but, not really comparable to…,” the sentence wasn’t finished, but Sokka mentally patted himself proudly on the back anyway.  _ Not comparable to me.  _

 

“He uh, died,” Sokka blurted out and flat out facepalmed right after. Okay, that was a stupid thing to say. Even if Zuko didn’t have feelings for him, saying something like that definitely is a mood killer. Why couldn’t he just have a brain-to-mouth filter? “Or at least, that’s what we think,” he added, as if that made it any better. 

 

Zuko didn’t exactly look that taken aback by it, or all that sad for that matter. “He did? How?”

 

“First he got brainwashed in Ba Sing Se, and then he kinda possibly got killed by Long Feng? Around the same time as you freed Appa probably. We’re actually not fully sure but I don’t really think he survived.”

 

Zuko looked as if he was about to say something, but then stopped himself. Sokka knew better than to press on on the matter, not that he wanted to do that himself anyway. 

 

~~

 

At least Suki was there, that’s something. He didn’t put both his and Zuko’s life in danger for absolutely nothing. Seeing his father would’ve been nice, but Suki was a good second. 

 

“Look, that’s Suki!” He had said excitedly, leaning over the border, pointing at her. 

 

Did Zuko know Suki? Probably not.  _ Should I tell him? _ Probably. 

 

“She, uh,”

 

“Was she another one of your girlfriends or something?” A tiny bit of bitterness betrayed his voice. “Not that you’re not allowed to have a girlfriend or something, obviously.”

 

“I guess you could say that,” he saw Zuko’s face fall a bit. “Don’t worry, not anymore!” He wasn’t sure why he was assuring Zuko of this, but he didn’t want to fully bring the other’s morals down. “She’s Toph’s soulmate,” Sokka quickly added. 

 

Zuko took a better look now. “Yea, that makes sense,” he said, before Sokka pulled his wrist to run towards her. 

 

~~

 

“Sokka, I’m so glad to see you!” Suki almost yelled after she had thrown Sokka around in the prison cell, causing the helmet to fall of. Okay, in her defence, his way of introducing himself hadn’t exactly been waterproof. 

 

“I knew you’d come!” She pulled him tightly into a hug. 

 

He melted into it, being really glad she was okay. “Yea, I’m here with Zuko-“ 

 

“Zuko?” She said, suddenly sounding a lot less impressed than she first was. 

 

She wasn’t to blame for thinking ‘I’m here with Zuko’ weren’t exactly positive words considering the circumstances. 

 

“He’s changed! I promise Suki I-“ 

 

At that exact moment, Zuko knocked on the door, signaling someone was coming and everything moved so quickly. Suki nodded, understanding the situation right away and while hearing how Zuko fought off the guard as a cover, he tried to sneaking out.  _ I hope he’s okay.  _ This didn’t end well, obviously. What were they even thinking? 

 

~~

 

Seeing Zuko being smashed to the ground by the guards was painful, Sokka had to admit, but at least it had lead to a possible escape. They were gonna get out of here, the three of them. Well and that other dude, but that wasn’t the point.  _ I hope Zuko won’t be too cold in the cell.  _

  
  


~~

 

The two sat in the cooler, trying to not get noticed, accidentally overhearing bypassing guards as they spoke about new people arriving tomorrow. 

 

_ Dad _ . 

 

“It could be your dad,” Zuko looked at him. 

 

“Is it right for me to risk all of our freedom on the slim chance my dad is gonna show up?” Sokka didn’t know what to do anymore. Of course he wanted to help his father, or at least see him again, but too much was at stake. He couldn’t risk Suki and Zuko’s life like this, could he? “We could escape now and get out safely…”

 

“It’s your call, Sokka,” Zuko said at him, totally putting his faith in Sokka’s hands for some reason. 

 

“I don’t know,” His father was too important. If Zuko wanted to go without him, which Sokka doubted he did  _ for some stupid reason _ , he wouldn’t hold him back. He’d figure it out somehow. 

 

”I do what you do. I trust your good judgement,” Zuko assured him, and before realizing it himself, Sokka had flunch his arms around the other and pulled him into a big hug.  _ I trust your good judgement.  _ That’s what his father had said as well. Why did everyone even trust him this much? Being trusted was a nice feeling though. 

 

“Thank you,” he whispered, barely loud enough for any of the two to hear. He vaguely thought about how warm Zuko’s arms were around him, even when in a literal cooling cell. 

 


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Boiling Rock part 2

_ ZUKO _

 

Sokka’s dad looked exactly like he had imagined him. Strong, like a capable warrior, someone who had raised his children well. And a special haircut, yea that too. Zuko was hardly one to judge other people’s hair with that ponytail of his he had had for three years though. What was he thinking with that one?

 

Zuko was happy for Sokka, he really was. This is why they were here after all.  _ I could have that father-son bound with uncle if I hadn’t fucked things over _ . Those were toxic thoughts that had been eating him alive for a while now. He wasn’t jealous of Sokka and his dad per se, he just wanted something alike, which could’ve been a possibility in an alternative universe where Zuko made up his mind earlier. But there’s no turning back time. All he could do was help his friends, hoping that one day his uncle would hear about it and be proud of him. 

 

How much did Sokka’s dad know about him? Had Sokka ever talked about the soulmate thing?  _ What would he say if he met me here? _ It’s not like they were acting on the soulmate status, they had said so themselves, but it still made him nervous. Zuko admitted to himself that yes, if Sokka wanted something to happen, we would let it happen, but it didn’t really seem like it for the moment, there were more important things on their schedules. He had to respect Sokka’s boundaries on the matter. Hakoda’s thoughts on him were still important for him though, but it was too late for first impressions now. 

 

Sokka probably hadn’t even mentioned him, he realized. Clearly, the two of them barely saw each other and when they did it was probably not under the right circumstances to bring up something like soulmates. Not when there was a war to fight.  

 

~~

 

“Mai!” Well, Zuko hadn’t exactly expected her to be here. Sure the warden was her uncle and he had mentioned she was heartbroken by the breakup but that had just been an act she had put up. Any sane person would be heartbroken if their actual real boyfriend left them like that, with just a letter and nothing else, and considering they technically were in a relationship, she’d have to act like it too. 

 

“Close the doors and leave!” She commanded the guards. “I can handle it.” They looked at each other for a second, debating whether to leave or not, but ended up nodding and walking out anyway, closing the doors behind them. 

 

“Listen, I-,” he began. 

 

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Zuko!” Mai angrily whispered. “I hadn’t expected this, I must admit.” She showed him the letter he had written as if he didn’t know himself what it said.  _ Dear Mai. You were right that day on the beach. I feel like I really need to do this for myself. I’m joining team Avatar. Please don’t come look for me, I’ll manage on my own. I’m sorry you had to find out this way.  _

 

“I don’t,” he painfully admitted, “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

 

“You’re betraying your country! That’s not what I meant that day on the beach!” She glared. “I never said,  _ ‘hey, Zuko, how about you go find your soulmate and go teach the Avatar to defeat your father _ ’!”

 

“I’m not betraying my country! I’m doing this exactly for my country!” He tried to defend himself. In the long run, the end of the war would be better for not only the rest of the world but the Fire Nation too. 

 

Mai didn’t answer, clearly still innerly forming an opinion on the matter. 

 

“Then what did you mean?” Zuko whispered. “That day on the beach?”

 

“I don’t know, I just didn’t want you to get in trouble!” Mai cared, he knew that of course, she would’ve never made the deal otherwise. “I just wanted you to like, I don’t know, come to terms with yourself or something.”

 

“I really had to do this, Mai!” Zuko didn’t want to scream too loudly, there were guards right behind the corner and she had been doing her best to keep her voice down too, but his anger problems maybe weren’t 100% solved yet. 

 

“Honestly,” she began, “it did hurt me that you didn’t tell me face to face. I thought you trusted me! I guess I don’t know you as well as I thought I did.”

 

“I do! But you would’ve tried to stop me!”

 

She considered this for a second before saying, “You’re right, I would have. For your own good.”

 

“I had no other choice.”

 

“Isn’t there another way to get your man without betraying the country?” Mai sighed. 

 

“He’s not  _ my man _ ! And I’m not betraying the country. This is about my destiny!” He wasn’t angry at her for her way of thinking, she had been indoctrinated by Fire Nation propaganda just as he had, but it still stung a little, knowing he was hurting her. “Please believe me when I say in a years time, it’ll all have been worth it.”

 

Mai looked away, and she didn’t look happy either. The thought that Zuko might have ruined this friendship too hurt him as well, but he still had to get out of here somehow. 

 

_ I’m so sorry Mai.  _

 

~~

 

_ SOKKA  _

 

Of course his dad had come up with a plan, he’s a mastermind after all. He was so glad to see his dad again, and they were so close to freedom, he could literally feel it. 

 

He didn’t want to leave the cell just yet, stretching the moment between his dad and him as long as possible. They were going to get out, but what if something went wrong anyway and they’d get split up again? 

 

The cell was bare and cold with barely any sunlight. Sokka would lose his mind if he had to stay here for long. 

 

“So, Prince Zuko?” His dad suddenly smirked. Because,  _ of course _ , he would bring that up. “I said he’d change, didn’t I?”

 

“Yea, you did,” Sokka looked away. It was still an awkward topic, considering they hadn’t really properly spoken about it themselves. Yea, maybe his heart started racing when he saw Zuko sometimes, but they had to talk things through first. 

 

“So? Anything happening I should know of?”

 

“No,” Sokka shook his head. “I don’t think he wants to?” 

 

“He doesn’t? How do you keep those feelings in line? When I met your mother I-,” his father started. 

 

“This is a different situation than you and mom were in though,” Sokka replied. If they had no history, if Zuko had just arrived at the South Pole for absolutely no reason whatsoever and definitely not to capture Aang for months to come, this whole thing would’ve been a lot easier.  

Hakoda nodded. “I guess it is.” He shifted a bit. “I still trust you though. And well, if you trust this Zuko now, I see no reason why I couldn’t.”

 

“Thank you dad,” Sokka smiled. Yea, his dad was the best dad in the world. 

 

~~

 

Sokka couldn’t say he wasn’t extremely relieved when Zuko was finally back, but he couldn’t dwell on feelings now. He’d ask what happened with him later. Now, it was time for an escape. 

 

They could be glad they had Suki, really. Without her, this whole escape plan would never work. Without any effort, she fought off a dozen of guards, taking the warden captive without breaking a sweat. 

 

“That’s some woman!” His father said. 

 

“Tell me about it,” he beamed. 

 

~~

 

Azula had almost as much of a skill of showing up at wrong moments as Zuko used to have when he was still evil and stuff.  _ Really? Doesn’t this family ever take a break? _

 

Azula didn’t lose any time with conversations, as soon as she set foot on the gondola, she started fighting Zuko, while Ty Lee fought Suki.  _ Why did Ty Lee even bother? She seems like a nice enough person, why is she doing this?  _

 

Sokka knew he had to help Zuko, he couldn’t fight his sister alone. It might hurts his pride, but a Zuko with hurt pride was still a better Zuko than a dead one. Azula was way too powerful for anyone to manage alone, except for maybe Aang. 

They fought together in some kind of harmony, Zuko fighting fire with fire,  _ literally _ , and Sokka attacking Azula with his sword.

 

It was dangerous, fighting on top of this gondola, especially when Suki was having her own battle only a few metres apart. At times, Sokka was scared one of Azula’s blasts would throw her off. Lucky for him, Suki is an extremely capable person. After a bit, it didn’t exactly seem like the fight was making any progress. But no progress is better than everything getting worse, he guessed. 

 

When the gondola suddenly fell still, and he almost slid off if it weren’t for Zuko grabbing his hand in an instant, but the adrenaline of this whole fight overshadowed whatever possible feelings he could’ve gotten over that for now. It was scary, fighting like this when there was a real possibility in just falling in boiling water. The water was so hot, the heat could be felt where they stood too, and Sokka wasn’t exactly used to these hot ‘weather’ conditions. 

 

“They’re about to cut the line!” Ty Lee yelled. He could feel himself keeping in his breath for a second. 

 

“Then it’s time for us to leave,” Azula smirked, leaving almost as fast as they came. 

 

Was this how Sokka was going to die? On an island in a volcano while trying to save his dad? Ty Lee had a weird look on her face as she left, as if she almost regretted leaving them there like this. 

 

The worst part was that his friends would never know what had happened. Katara would blame Zuko, thinking he had killed Sokka somewhere and ran off, probably. Toph would maybe think they eloped or something like that. Aang might think they drowned during the fishing trip. Either way, none of them would ever know the truth and Katara would never get to see their dad again. 

 

“Zuko I-“ they were close, facing each other, and Sokka was scared alright. This would probably be one of the last minutes of his life. An overwhelming amount of fear flooded over him and he just had this feeling that he had to do  _ something. Kiss Zuko one last time.  _ There was no time for conversations or regrets or anything. Just…  _ do something.  _

 

Zuko’s face was pretty unreadable, but he couldn’t imagine him not being scared. 

 

He was just about to reach forwards and pull him in, before Zuko’s eyes grew wide and suddenly ran forwards, yelling “wait! Look! It’s Mai!”

 

Sokka quickly snapped out of it to turn around and look what was happening on the ground. Sure enough, Mai stood there, fighting off the guards who had been cutting the lines. Hadoka threw a glance at Sokka, which he ignored.

 

“Is she on our side?” Suki whispered, not sure what to think of it. Sokka himself wasn’t sure anymore either. 

 

“She’s a friend of mine more than she is a friend of Azula’s, it seems,” Zuko said quietly with a smile. 

 

“She’s gonna face Azula’s wrath once they get down,” Sokka didn’t want to ruin the moment, but it was true. Getting on Azula’s bad side was never a good option. 

 

“This is men loving men and women loving women solidarity, as she’d say,” Zuko whispered, and Sokka barely caught it, but Zuko laughed nonetheless. Then he said louder. “She’s very capable. If I’d trust one person to stand strong in a fight against Azula, it’s Mai.”

 

“When did everyone become such a good fighter?” Hakoda laughingly said. 

 

“You chose a good fake girlfriend,” Sokka couldn’t help but laugh.  _ Zuko’s fake girlfriend was saving them _ . If anyone would have told him that 4 month ago, he’d laugh in their face. “I like her. I need to meet her once the war is over. Properly”

 

“Don’t worry, you will.” 

 

~~

 

Once in the airship back, they could finally breathe again. What a crazy couple of days. 

 

The airship was nice, if you ignored the Fire Nation signs everywhere that is, and spacious enough for the 5 of them to walk around in. Those were going to be a real thread when trying to defeat the Fire Lord. 

 

“So, we’ve never properly met before,” Sokka heard his dad say a bit farther back. He turned around to see his father sticking out his hand to Zuko, who bowed rather than taking his hand in return. 

 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Zuko clearly looked kind of terrified, which was funny. Was he trying to impress his dad? 

 

“Hey, don’t be so stiff! We’re family now!” Both Sokka and Zuko’s eyes grew in shock now.  _ Hadn’t he told his father they weren’t acting on it? _ “Every friend of Sokka and Katara’s is family to me!” Oh. Right. Friends. 

 

“Thank you,” Zuko said awkwardly and it came out more as a question than a statement, as Hakoda pulled him into a hug. The other clearly still wasn’t very used to such gestured. 

 

“But hey, if you ever really become family, you have my blessing,” Hakoda laughed before leaving both boys who had turned bright red, averting their eyes from each other. 

 

~~

 

Only the two of them were left at the campfire, even though they were probably the most tired out of them all. It was a clear night, with a lot of stars in the sky, and there was a comfortable silence. The little flips Sokka’s heart did every time him and Zuko were alone together were getting hard to ignore. 

 

Katara had asked if he was coming too when they all left to go to bed, but he couldn’t. He had things to ask and things to tell. Hopefully, Zuko was in the mood to talk too. 

 

“What a trip,” Sokka said. 

 

“Tell me about it,” Zuko sighed. “But hey, we have Suki and your father back, and I got to talk things through with Mai, kind of, well, I probably made it worse but-”

 

“You’re rambling,” it wasn’t to be rude of something, but his brain-to-mouth filter was even more non-existent when tired. “What happened with Mai.”

 

“She said I was betraying my country. It’s not her fault she thinks that way, I guess. The Fire Nation has a lot of propaganda. I locked her in so I could escape too. In the end she still helped us though so, I guess it’s somewhat fine?” He didn’t exactly sound like he believed that last statement himself. 

 

The fire was getting smaller, making the space where they sat colder in the process. 

 

“Thank you for telling me about the place,” if it weren’t for Zuko, he wouldn’t have his father and Suki back. “And for coming with me,” and if it weren’t for Zuko coming with him, he would’ve probably died in the process. 

 

“I’m glad I did.”

 

They both stared at the fire, both tired and they really should just go sleep, but there was too much on Sokka’s mind. 

 

“Can you,” should he really ask this? Was Zuko going to be mad? “Tell me about this whole ‘capture the Avatar’ thing you were on for those past few months? Please? I just really need to know. ”

 

Silence. Zuko’s face was lit up by the fire he was still staring at, showing not many emotions. He lifted his hand up, creating a smaller fire in his hand, looking at it. A few months ago, Sokka would’ve been terrified of Zuko being near, holding out a fire like that, but that wasn’t the case anymore. It was strangely calm, sitting there. The need to know the story was too much to ignore, which is the only reason he didn’t say _ “nevermind, if you don’t want to talk about it you don’t have to” _ right after. If anything was ever going to happen between them, which he wanted to happen more and more every day, he had to know. Sokka had the right to know, right? 

 

Finally, Zuko spoke up, still holding up the fire, focussing on that while talking. “I was banished for three years, the only way I could go back was if I returned with Aang,” he still wasn’t looking at Sokka, but Sokka was definitely looking at him. “He’s quite the threat to the Fire Nation. Or to my father at least.”

 

“What? Why?” his heart already dropped in his chest just thinking about it, being  _ banished.  _ The Fire Nation was a weird place, banishing their own princes. 

 

“I deserved it, really,” Zuko sighed, switching the small fire from his right hand to the left. “I spoke up when I shouldn’t have.”

 

Sokka could only feel himself blinking at that. What does he mean,  _ deserve it? _ What 13 year old deserves to be banished by speaking up for something? 

 

“How did you get your scar?” He asked instead, unconsciously lightly tracing his tattoo. 

 

“At the same time,” there was a short pause, and Zuko put out the fire in his hand to finally look at him. “Look, I really wanted to join the war council, and uncle told me to not to speak during the meeting. I should’ve listened to him, to be honest. I should’ve listened to him more in general, then I wouldn’t be having half of the problems I have now. He’s good at giving advice, I wish I could’ve seen that sooner. 

 

“Anyway, I did speak up, and father wasn’t pleased to say the least. It’s just- the general’s plan was so cruel! I couldn’t just let it slide, and I paid the price. It lead to an Agni Kai and I thought I’d have to fight the general, but when I turned around, all I saw was my father.” 

 

There was another pause, and Sokka didn’t know what to say because this whole situation was just so much worse than he had thought. 

 

“I begged for forgiveness of course, and I didn’t want to fight him, but that just made it a lot worse. I was being disrespectful. I’ll spare you the exact details, but it wasn’t pretty,” Zuko said softly. 

 

Sokka couldn’t believe this. Zuko actually sat there, saying he  _ deserved _ this all, which he very much clearly didn’t. It’s not like he had thought the scar had a nice simple ‘woops, I accidentally burned myself with my bending!’ Backstory anymore, but this was just… on a whole other level. Seriously, who the fuck does that? 

 

“You obviously didn’t deserve that,” was all he could say. “That’s terrible.”

 

Zuko just bitterly laughed, picking up a leaf near his feet and turning his attention towards that so he didn’t have to look Sokka in the eye anymore while talking about this. It didn’t seem like the reason behind this was him being not sincere, just him being uncomfortable by the memories. “I guess, in my head I know that now. But for years I really believed I did, and I still do most of the time,” he picked at the leaf in his hand, “as you can imagine, father wasn’t exactly pleased with my tattoo when I got it either.”

 

“Well, your dad is a jerk,” was the best response he could come up with. What the fuck?

 

Zuko smiled at that though. “Yea, I guess it runs in the family.” 

 

What could be possibly answer to that? 

 

“What about your mother?” The fact that Zuko had told him about the scar was already more than he had hoped for, but he still wanted to know more. He just wanted to understand, fully, and everything. 

 

“One night, about two years before the scar, she came into my room, telling me that everything she had done, she did to protect me,” he bitterly laughed. “I didn’t understand what it was about, she had woken me up in my sleep and I was still drowsy, but when I woke up, Azula said she was gone and no one knew where, and that grandpa had died the previous night. I asked my dad where she was, but he didn’t reply.” 

 

“Do you think she-...” he didn’t further want to upset Zuko, he really didn’t, but he finished his sentence anyway. “She died?”

 

For a second Sokka wondered if Zuko was playing with the leaf to see if he would accidentally on fire by talking about his memories, or something like that. Isn’t that a thing that could happen to fire benders? Accidentally putting things on fire when upset? And Zuko had been doing his best to bend only using the way the dragons had taught him. Either way, Sokka was glad nothing had been accidentally put on fire yet. 

 

“I thought so,” Zuko dropped the leaf back onto the ground and turned back to him. “Sokka, this is going to get really dark,” he sighed. “I don’t know if you really want to hear this. It’s a real moodkiller.”

 

Even darker? Seriously? What could possibly be even worse with Zuko’s family than everything he had already said. “Can you tell me?” He asked anyway. The mood was already pretty gloomy as it was. 

 

He watched Zuko press his lips into a thin line, shaking his head for a moment, before reluctantly saying, “if you really want to know.”

 

“Please?” It was bad to push this further, he knew that, but Sokka was a curious person, and more than anything he wanted to know what Zuko had went through all those years ago, even if he couldn’t possibly comprehend how someone can go through all that. 

 

“Fuck, okay,” Zuko swore and took a deep breath. “On the day of the invasion, my father told me that when uncle’s son died, he had asked my grandfather, who was Fire Lord at that time, if he could become heir to the throne, rather than my uncle, with Ozai having children that could follow him up, now uncle had lost Lu Ten. Fuck, Sokka, this is really painful okay,” he buried his face in his hands. Zuko wasn’t crying, but he was clearly stressed and Sokka felt bad for pressing on about the matter. “Give me a second.”

 

“I’m sorry, you can-“  _ stop.  _ But Sokka didn’t want him to stop, not really. It was selfish, yes, but he was emotionally invested in this whole thing now. 

 

“No,” Zuko sighed. “It’s fine,” he took a deep breath and paused for a while. Maybe a minute, maybe more. The night was dark and the fire was almost gone now, and this conversation was about as intimate as when Sokka touched his scar when he had just arrived, maybe even more. “Azulon wasn’t impressed at all, and said, in order for Ozai to understand what my uncle went through with Lu Ten dying, he should kill me, his first born son. And he was going to do it too, Sokka! He really was! My dad was going to  _ kill me _ when I was eleven, fuck. Just… get rid of me without a second though. I doubt he’d feel even a bit guilty if he had.”

 

“Hey, it’s alright,” Sokka awkwardly said, because what else could he do? There is absolutely nothing you can say to that that could possibly make the conversation anymore pleasant. Jokes were his thing and all, but now would be the worst timing ever for that. His heart ached because fuck, the Fire Lord really is ruthless. He shuffled closer instead, slowly wrapping his arms around Zuko, trying to provide at least a bit of comfort.  _ His father would’ve killed him.  _ “I’m sorry I asked.”

 

“My mother came up with a plan, on how my father could become Fire Lord, meanwhile killing my grandfather. It was the only way to protect me. She got banished then as a punishment,” he finished, not really responding to the hug and looking at the ground. “Guess banishments run in the family too.”

 

“That’s really-,”  _ horrific. Sad. Crazy. Gross. Terrible.   _ “Sad.”

 

“I don’t think she died,” he said then. “Or maybe she has now, but I don’t think so. He would’ve killed me, Sokka. And for year and years I wanted nothing more than for him to love me and be proud of me. I really cared about his opinion on me. I’m his _ son  _ after all. I should’ve listened to uncle from the very start.”

 

Sokka pulled him in even tighter, feeling like it was the only thing he could do. “We will find her, your mother, after this war had ended,” he hear himself say without even thinking about it. They would. They had to. “And your uncle too.”

 

He could feel Zuko nodding. 

 

“I’m really sorry for what I did, I really am. At the time I thought it was the right thing to do, that it was my destiny… I don’t know how I could’ve been that stupid.”

 

“Listen Zuko,” he carefully started. “You did some really bad things, like trying to capture Aang and sending Combustion Man after us, but I understand,” because he  _ did _ . Sokka wasn’t sure what he would have done in that situation, and he was glad Zuko at least had had his uncle who cared for him. There were probably a bunch more smaller things that had also contributed to this whole mess, but for now he knew enough. He’d ask about Azula and that whole situation another time. “Thank you for telling me.”

 

Zuko just nodded and softly freed himself from Sokka’s embrace to stand up. “I’m going to bed.”

 

Sokka needed a second to take it all in. Zuko’s father had not only given him the scar, but he would’ve straight up  _ killed _ him. At the age of 11. What the fuck. What kind of absolute sociopath does that? The fact that this man was the Fire Lord and had a bunch of people following him, rather than being locked up somewhere in a prison cell made Sokka physically sick. If anyone should be taken to the boiling rock, it should be Ozai. 

 

He couldn’t wrap his head around how one person could be this terrible. And it hadn’t even only been Ozai, Azulon had no problem telling his his son to kill his grandson either. Sokka stared at the campfire, watching the last tiny bit of it die out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One chapter left! It’s a pretty long one and will be posted tomorrow


	14. Chapter 14

_ ZUKO  _

 

He was exhausted to say the least, and the conversation he had just had, had almost been as tiring as the trip to the Boiling Rock itself, but at least Sokka knew everything now. Well, pretty much everything anyway. Everything what he needed to know. What he  _ deserved _ to know. 

 

When he entered his bedroom, the first thing he did was groaning and let himself fall face-first into his bed, finally allowing every muscle in his body to fully relax. 

 

He thought back to Mai. The fact that she even had tried to save Zuko had shocked him. Yea they were friends now, but after he had pushed her aside and locked her up himself in favour of escaping, he really didn’t think she would.  _ I probably wouldn’t have.  _

 

“Hey Zuko?” He heard Sokka’s voice behind him after maybe laying there for 5 minutes. 

 

He groaned about the fact that he had to sit up to face his friend, but it was Sokka so of course he did it anyway because he liked Sokka more than sleep, or lying down, apparently and replied “yea?” 

 

For a second he though Sokka would ask a question about the previous conversation, wanting to know even more of the painful memories, and as much Zuko didn’t like talking about, he also knew he definitely would tell him if he asked because it’s  _ Sokka.  _ He was already too far gone to say no to him. 

 

Talking about this all had been weird, and it felt a bit like a relief somehow too. He never had such a deep conversation with anyone, and no one, except his father, really knew of all these things either. For years, he thought that if people knew, it would make him weak. That they would treat him differently, like he could break any second. The idea of people feeling bad for him, and maybe even hanging out with him only because out of pity and not because they wanted to, was something he really hated. He didn’t need pity. 

 

“Can I… test something out?” Sokka asked vaguely instead. 

 

“Uh, sure?” 

 

He had absolutely no idea where this was going, and he was too tired to think about it. Sokka certainly had chosen a right time to be all vague. 

 

“And do you promise not to ask any questions?” 

 

Now, that was even weirder. 

 

He didn’t exactly want to give in to the ‘not asking questions’ part, but he trusted Sokka enough. There really wasn’t anything worse that could happen than what had already happened in the past.  

 

“Okay,” Zuko finally decided. If it were anyone else, that wouldn’t have been the answer, but again,  _ it was Sokka _ . 

 

Sokka nodded, but kept standing there anyway, looking like he was about to flee the room and pretend like nothing had been said anything in the first place, but then took a step forwards. And another one. And finally, he sat down on the bed and Zuko’s breath hitched in his chest. Where was this even going? They’re both way too tired for this. 

 

“I have come to sleep with you,” Sokka said, and Zuko could feel his entire head going red in an instance and Sokka’s soon followed as he realized what he said. What was he supposed to make out of that? “No! Wait! I didn’t mean it like that!” He jumped up again, looking terrified. “It’s really late already and that’s not what I-“ 

 

“I mean like…” Sokka continued, making big arm movements, “actually sleep. Platonically. Or something like that. Not the… other kind,” trying to talk himself out of it. “Or something.”

 

Normally, Zuko would’ve made a snide remark about the situation, just because of Sokka’s rambling and wrong choice of words, but he had never been good at humor anyway, and it was late enough already, and they were _ going to sleep in the same bed _ , so he decided to leave it before ruining anything. Bedsharing was an intimate thing, was it not? In their case at least. 

 

“Sokka, it’s fine.” He said, really wanting to ask  _ why _ . He shouldn’t have promised not to ask questions, it clearly was a trap. Sokka had a plan and Zuko was glad to go along with it, let him figure things out, or something. He did however want to know the plan too, but he guessed this is the most he was getting, a vague ‘ _ hey let’s sleep in the same bed _ ’. 

 

He scooted a bit too the side to make place on the bed, even though it was clearly not made for more than one person, and both of them knew that very well too.  The night was warm enough, for him anyway, and there wasn’t a need for blankets, which Zuko wasn’t sure if it made things better or worse. 

 

Sokka said nothing as both of them laid down. Zuko could  _ feel _ Sokka’s breath hitching, and he was sure the other could feel his hitching too. He was too tired for this. 

 

Facing each other, Sokka smiled, which would’ve been awkward, except that it wasn’t and it just felt so natural even if they had never done anything like this before, even with the previous conversation, and it just felt  _ right.  _ That was the only way Zuko could describe the whole thing. 

 

Sokka got closer and wrapped an arm around him, snuggling his head in his chest, causing Zuko’s heart to stop for a second, before starting to beat twice as fast. Sokka’s skin felt cold against his, and he knew the other would think his skin felt warm because it always did. He hoped Sokka could find comfort in it. 

 

“Goodnight, Zuko,” Sokka told him, breath warm on his chest. 

 

“Goodnight,” he replied, not even if it had been loud enough to hear because he was sure his voice had completely giving up at this point. 

 

~~

 

The first thing that Zuko noted when he woke up, was the fact that he had never slept this well before in his life. Sure, he had still woken up as soon as the sun had risen because that’s just how things are, but he wasn’t even a tiny bit tired, even considering the fact how tired he was yesterday and how long they had stayed up for to talk.  _ This is the only correct way to sleep, ever. _

 

The second thing Zuko noted was that Sokka’s body was pretty much completely tangled with his. He wasn’t sure whether it was his or Sokka’s heartbeat he felt, because they were so in sync. Two hearts beating as one, literally. That was probably a soulmate thing, or something? 

 

Complete and utter peace mixed with some kind of emotion he couldn’t quite place was everything he felt. It was nice. 

 

~~

 

It was a couple of hours later and Zuko knew he should be starting with Aang’s practice, but he couldn’t bring himself to wake up Sokka. Not now. Sokka must have been exhausted from the trip to the Boiling Rock, and if he slept as well as even a fraction of how Zuko had, he wouldn’t ever wish to wake Sokka up himself, he deserved to rest a bit. 

 

Zuko did however sincerely hope Aang wouldn’t come look for them. Or Hakoda. Or worse, Katara. Yea, he didn’t know how to explain that one to her. Would she be angry? Probably. But it hadn’t been his plan to begin with. He had just followed suit with Sokka’s. Not that it was a bad plan by any means, or that he had been opposed to it. 

 

Luckily, Sokka woke not long after from his own. 

 

“Hi,” he said in the tiniest voice and Zuko fucking  _ swooned.  _ Sokka was so vulnerable in a way, lying there. 

 

To be honest, he had thought Sokka would scramble up and run away as soon as he realized he was lying on top of Zuko. Like he had sleep walked his way over to his bed last night without ever intending to. But he hadn’t. He didn’t. He only rubbed his eyes a bit, which was really.. cute. In like, a very Sokka way. 

 

“Hi,” Zuko replied softly. 

 

“That was nice,” Sokka smiled. 

 

“It was.”

 

The other yawned a bit and stretched out, as much as that was possible when staying tangled at least, before saying. “Again tonight?”

 

What else other than nod could Zuko do? He wasn’t about to say no to this whole thing, obviously. 

 

~~

 

“So you and Sokka, hu?” Aang asked when they were alone practicing their bending, slowly trying to control a flame of fire going around them. 

 

“What about it?” He tried not to think of the previous night and fully bring himself out of concentration in the process. 

 

“Did you have a nice trip? You were late to practice this morning. Must have been tired.”

 

Zuko snorted. “The Boiling Rock isn’t exactly the holiday place to be.”  _ Maybe we could go to ember island once? _

 

“But you had some time alone right? Did you talk things out?” Aang sounded genuinely curious. He must have known Sokka hadn’t slept in his own room last night, but he didn’t mention it. 

 

“We talked about everything except for the soulmate situation,” he replied. Zuko knew they really should properly talk about that, or something, but in his opinion, the previous conversations had been just as important, if not more so. At least now all the cards were on the table. 

 

Aang nodded. “I think he likes you.”

 

“We’re soulmates.”

 

“Obviously,” Aang accidentally made the fire smaller and tried his best to make it bigger again. “I knew you’d change for Sokka.”

 

“I didn’t change for Sokka specifically,” he hadn’t, not really. It had been a part, yes, but knowing he could help the world become a better place and that he’d do his uncle proud were the main things. Sokka was a bonus. A very nice bonus. “Hey Aang?”

 

“Hmm,” he hummed, still focussed on the fire. 

 

“You and I? Were kind of family, you know?” 

 

“I’m sorry, what?” Aang dropped the fire completely now, which was  _ dangerous.  _ “I’m sorry, but you really shouldn’t tell me these things when I’m  _ holding fire _ .”

 

“I’m a great-grandson of Avatar Roku,” he simply replied, keeping his own fire under control. “On my mother’s side.”

 

“Great-grandson of Sozin  _ and _ Avatar Roku? Well that explains things…” he trailed of. “Wait, then I am your great-grandfather!” Aang suddenly grinned and put up a voice that made him sound older. “Go clean your room, young man!”

 

Well, that was to be expected. 

 

~~

 

“Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?” Hakoda asked during one of the breaks of Aang’s and his practice. “Alone?”

 

His heart was beating in his chest. What would Sokka’s father want from him? Was he going to get scolded? Or worse? 

 

“Uh, yes sir.”

 

“Please don’t call me sir,” Hakoda’s smile looked sincere enough, and definitely not like he was going to beat up Zuko or something like that, but you can never be too sure. 

 

“Uhm, okay,” he awkwardly replied. 

 

“I know it sounded like a joke yesterday, but you really do have my blessing,” Sokka’s father then said, against all his expectations. 

 

His father was a friendly man yes, but it still made no sense to Zuko. “Why do you trust me this much? You know I… wasn’t exactly a good person not even a month ago right?” He was shooting himself in the foot with this, he knew, but Hakoda had the right to know too. 

 

“Oh, believe me, I’m aware,” he sighed. “Listen, I haven’t told Sokka this yet, and not because it’s some kind of secret but because I hadn’t had the time yet but, I knew you were his soulmate from when he was 12 years old.”

 

“What? How?”

 

“I fought in the 100 year war, kid. The royal Fire Nation family was kind of a hot topic, pun intended” he loudly laughed at his own joke, that in Zuko’s opinion really wasn’t all that good. Yup, definitely family of Sokka. “One day, I saw a news poster, with a drawing of you on it. I’m not sure anymore what the poster was about to be honest, but I recognised the scar straight away. No offence. It’s pretty prominent.”

 

“Yea, it’s a dead give away,” he admitted. 

 

“I was upset at first. Very upset, the Fire Nation killed my wife, you know?” Hakoda didn’t exactly look angry at this moment, so that’s a bonus. “I thought the universe must have made a mistake, so in my free time, which I honestly didn’t have a lot of, I tried finding books on the matter of soulmates, to see if there was any information on soulmarks going wrong or anything like that.”

 

Zuko couldn’t exactly blame Sokka’s father for hoping the universe would be wrong, it must have been quite the shock after all. 

 

“After reading a lot of books, and a lot of sleepless nights, especially that,” he sighed. “I found out that sometimes, your soulmate isn’t the right person for you from the beginning, but they always end up being a good match at one point or another of the person’s life, so I knew you would change one day,” Hakoda finished. 

 

The fact that Sokka’s father put so much faith into Zuko changing, even before anyone else had, even if he didn’t know him, really blew his mind. Sure, it was because of what he had read in books, but those could be wrong. There’s always an exception to the rule. 

 

Zuko wasn’t sure what to reply, so he instead said, “Sokka loves you a lot, you know? Katara too.”

 

“I know, I feel bad about leaving them alone for so long.”

 

“I’m sorry the war lasted so long.”

 

“Hey, that’s not your fault,” he assured him. “Besides, it’s going to end soon, is it not?” Hakoda smiled. 

 

This was a weird conversation, Zuko decided, but he wasn’t angry about it. 

 

~~

  
  


_ SOKKA  _

 

Sokka couldn’t stop thinking about last night. It was like every piece had come together in his mind and in his heart. He fully trusted Zuko, even if it seemed too soon for such a thing. All the signals from the universe had to mean something, right?

 

His father trusted him too. Sure, his father had probably trusted Zuko before he even ever had for some strange reason, but it still brought a bit of peace to his mind. Hakoda was a smart man who knew who to trust and who not to trust. 

 

With Zuko being gone to practice with Aang, he felt cold and alone again. Not in a  _ ‘I literally cannot live without Zuko anymore’ _ way because that would be weird but more in a  _ ‘I certainly wish I was cuddling with Zuko right now rather than sitting here alone on the cold edge of a fountain’ _ kind of way. 

 

“Hey, you okay?” Katara asked, going to sit next to him. 

 

“Yea.”

 

“Where were you last night? You weren’t in the room when we woke up,” she seemed worried, like she may have thought Sokka hadn’t slept at all, or that he had slept outside. 

 

“I won’t be tonight either,”  _ tell her.  _ He had to. Katara maybe didn’t like Zuko, but she had to know the truth, didn’t she? It’s not like they could hide it either. “I’m sleeping with Zuko. Actually sleeping. Not…” another set of gestures were made. At least now he cleared that one up straight away, because it was pretty awkward the first time. Sokka was sure she got the implications of the statement though.

 

_ Not that I would be opposed to not-actually sleeping with Zuko.  _

 

Katara narrowed her eyes, and didn’t say anything at first. He was fully ready for her to lash out, saying he shouldn’t be stupid enough to trust him already, only because of one trip. But what he felt was  _ real.  _ And Zuko had put his own live in danger to go with him to save his dad. Without Zuko they wouldn’t have gotten out either. 

 

“Dad likes him,” he felt like he needed to add. She would trusts his dad’s judgement, surely. 

 

“Okay” 

 

“What?” He hadn’t expect that. 

 

“I said, okay,” she repeated. 

 

Sokka’s eyes widened “Really?” 

 

“If you feel like that’s the right thing to do,” Katara sighed.  “You like him. Dad likes him. All the other seem to do so too. Who am I to stop  _ love _ ,” she rolled her eyes, but her words still sounded sincere. “And after all, he did bring back dad and Suki, alive and everything. If he really had bad intentions he would’ve done something before you even reached the Boiling Rock, I guess.”

 

“Katara!” He was so happy his sister had finally decided to trust him in this. His arms wrapped her in a big hug without even thinking about it. This all was going a lot better than he had been expecting. 

 

“Alright, alright,” she patted his back. “Come on, let's go find dad,” she smiled as they pulled apart and yanked him up by the wrist. “There’s still a lot to talk about.”

 

~~

 

“Your dad’s a nice man,” Zuko said that night. 

 

This time, Sokka was pretty much fully on top of the other already, who was lying on his back, and his head rested on Zuko’s chest. 

 

_ His hair is still so soft _ , he noted as he sat up a bit, trying to not put his full weight on one spot and suffocating Zuko, running fingers through his hair as he looked at it.  _ This is definitely the nicest haircut he has ever had _ . 

 

“He is,” he agreed. It was a bit of an awkward position, with Zuko trying to look down at him and him focussing on Zuko’s hair, but it was nice nonetheless. 

 

Sokka knew he was fortunate with his dad, and felt sad about the fact that Zuko couldn’t say the same thing about his. But it was all okay. They were going to find Iroh again. And for the time being, Sokka was perfectly happy with Zuko being part of this little family. It’d probably stay like that even when they find his uncle. He was also perfectly happy for Iroh to join his family. 

 

“He likes you, you know,” he said afterwards, still running his hands through Zuko’s hair. “He was one of the first ones to trust you in making the right decisions one day or another, before any of us did.”

 

“He’s mentioned,” Zuko smiled, “he had more faith in me than I deserved, to be honest.”

 

Sokka propped himself up on one elbow, sliding off of Zuko a bit to get a better sight. 

 

“You spoke to him?” he asked, not being aware of that conversation taking place. 

 

“Yea.”

 

“Hey Zuko?”

 

He hummed in response. 

 

“No questions, right?”  _ Now is the good time. Just do it.  _

 

Zuko looked confused, and Sokka suddenly gave him a peck on the lips before he could even respond. It only lasted a second before he pulled back, it wasn’t supposed to be a hot, fierce kiss, more so a statement. Even under the moonlight that shone through the window he could see Zuko’s pale skin getting red. 

 

He looked like he was about to say something, but Sokka quickly cut him off with a big smile and said “Goodnight”, before returning to his previous position, head nestled on chest.  _ I could get used to this.  _  Making the ‘no questions’ promise had been a good idea. 

 

~~

 

“You wake up really early,” Sokka groaned, seeing the other had woken again, probably way before he had. “Why don’t you wake me up too?”

 

It was going to be his fault if Aang didn’t master firebending in time if things kept going like this. 

 

“I couldn’t,” Zuko looked away. 

 

He grinned. “And why’s that,” knowing the reason fully well. 

 

The sunlight got caught on Zuko’s eyes, who looked, in Sokka’s humble opinion, way too beautiful to be legal. “You looked really comfortable.”

 

“That’s because I was.”

 

~~

 

“I’m going to bathe in the river, wanna come with?” This wasn’t some weird excuse to see Zuko naked, or at least half naked, it really wasn’t! Sokka just knew no one would follow them there, and the more time they had alone, the better for now. The bending practice had been over already, so there was enough time. 

 

Zuko went bright red anyway,  _ seriously, it’s so easy to make him blush! _ “uh,” he stammered. 

 

“Come on,” Sokka grabbed his wrist, not waiting for a full answer, knowing no wasn’t going to be the reply anyway. 

 

Once they reached the river, he started pulling off his own clothes pretty much straight away. It’s not like he had an extreme problem with nudity honestly, it’s just a body, right? Zuko seemed to have a little more troubles with it, and just stammered an “uhh,” again. 

 

“Come on prince jerkbender, or are you going to wait till I take them off for you,” it has come out way more flirty and way less teasing than he had planned to, but what did it matter at this point? 

 

A boost of confidence went through Sokka now, which made sense because he was overall a pretty confident guy, and he had finally figured it all out. 

 

It’s not like Sokka was looking at how Zuko undressed himself, because that would be creepy, but he did notice how red his chest was too once he stepped into the water. _ Seriously, blushes so easily.  _

 

It wasn’t awkward, at least he didn’t think so. Just two dudes. Bathing. Yea it sounded less awkward in his head. At least Zuko had kept his underwear on. Sokka probably should’ve too, but who even bathes with underwear on? 

 

The tip of Zuko’s tattoo came just above the water, and Sokka couldn’t help but look at it. While he had a tattoo that was mostly painful for Zuko, the other just had a tattoo of his  _ boomerang.  _

 

“How did you even get that boomerang anyway?” Zuko asked, noticing the glare. 

 

“My dad gave it to me before he left.”

 

“Why didn’t he give you-”

 

“Hey! I don’t want to hear anything negative about my boomerang! Or do I need to remind you how I defeated Combustion Man with it?” he grinned proudly.  _ That’s right. Boomerangs are awesome.  _ “Isn’t he supposed to be like, the best assassin in the Fire Nation?”

 

Zuko clearly didn’t dare to say anything on that matter anymore. “You’re good with weapons,” he noted. 

 

“You know what I’m also good at?” he grinned evilly, and before Zuko could even say anything, yelled “WATER FIGHT,” splashing water onto the other straight away as a surprise attack. Okay  _ maybe  _ he had been planning this all along. 

 

“You’ll pay for this!” It came out more as a laugh than a threat, and before they knew it, there was a full blown water fight  with splashing and pushing and pulling, which was perhaps weird because he was very naked, and Zuko was almost naked, but it also was pretty hilarious. And fun, especially fun. 

 

“Don’t think you can win from me!” Sokka lightly pushed him down under water. 

 

“No, wait!” Zuko pushed him back, their bodies clashing each other in the process and everything went still for a second. He tried not to think of which body parts were touching each other through a very thin layer of wet fabric. The water was warm against their skin and there weren’t any clouds in the sky with the sun shining brightly, making the water on Zuko’s face  _ glisten _ which was truly, a sight. They both breathed heavily from the previous fight, and then, just like that time in the woods, they both leaned forwards, not knowing who had initiated the gesture, and it definitely didn’t matter this time. Him with his hands on Zuko’s hips, Zuko with one on Sokka’s face and the other one in his hair. 

 

Zuko was kissing him eagerly, which Sokka wasn’t angry about at all, until he realized they were both kissing and very much almost-naked in a river and if anyone walked in on them, which was a real possibility, he would probably die of embarrassment. 

 

“Wait, not here,” he said, slightly pushing the other away, who looked hurt for a second but then nodded in understanding. This  _ really  _ wasn’t the place. 

 

~~

 

Acting natural wasn’t a skill either of them had. At all. 

 

“You two were gone for long,” Toph noted as soon as they came back. Luckily, it was only her, Suki and Katara sitting around the fountain. “Suspicious.”

 

“We were just-”

 

“I really don’t want to know the details,” Katara said, not exactly looking angry at the fact Sokka was gone with Zuko, but more so very much not wanting to know her brother’s personal affairs in general. 

 

“They were fucking! Guys! Please! Think of the children!” Toph dramatically almost shouted. 

 

“Toph! Language!” Suki tried, but laughed anyway. “Wait, oh,  _ oh, _ you really were, weren’t you?”

 

“No, we weren’t-!” Zuko tried, looking around to see if anyone else had heard it, bright red. “Like-”

 

“Please, go on,” Suki giggled, and Toph agreed.  _ Sadists.  _ It was pretty funny though. 

 

“Please don’t,” Katara whined. 

 

“We really weren’t doing anything!” Zuko tried again, “we were just like… bathing. Platonically! Well Sokka was naked and I was almost naked but like, that’s how people bathe! it wasn’t- like- not-” 

 

“Sokka, I can’t believe you-,” Katara began, clearly teasing, which Zuko didn’t caught on. 

 

“No we really weren’t! We were just-... bathing! Really! In the river!” 

 

Okay, it was really funny seeing how hard he was trying to make it better, only to make this whole thing worse. Toph was flat out laughing at Zuko’s rambling now too, as the other two tried to somewhat keep it under control, not fully succeeding. “Zuko, please just drop it and leave the talking to me,” Sokka laughed, nudging him.

 

“No, by all means, please go on,” Toph encouraged while laughing loudly, and Zuko just angrily crossed his arms and sat down, sulking.  

 

~~

 

That night at the campfire, the two sat closer to each other than normal, and in a moment of confidence, Sokka had grabbed Zuko’s hand. Just for warmth and stuff. Or something like that. And maybe because he really wanted to. But it anyone asked, it was just for warmth. 

 

No one asked. 

 

~~

 

“You really talked yourself into a corner there earlier, with Toph, Suki and Katara,” Sokka said, lying in bed in the same position as the previous two nights. 

 

Zuko sulked again “what was I supposed to do?” 

 

“Just leave it to me next time,” he said. The other still didn’t look very impressed. “Hey, come on, none of the three meant anything bad by laughing, it was pretty funny.”

 

“They didn’t?”

 

“They were just teasing,” Sokka assured him. 

 

“I’m not very good with basic human interaction,” Zuko said, as if that hadn’t been obvious. 

 

“No kidding,” he laughed, before adding, full of confidence, “but I think it’s kind of cute”

 

Sokka didn’t even look up, but know how the other’s body had probably reacted. “You blush a lot.” 

 

“You talk a lot,” Zuko replied defensively. 

 

~~ 

 

When Sokka woke up, Zuko had been awake again, because the sun or something like that, probably. This time however, Zuko looked mortified when he realized the other had woken up.

 

“Hey you okay?” Sokka said shifting abit. “You look pretty-“

 

“No don’t-“ Zuko tried before coming bright red, again, because that was apparently his thing. 

 

Oh.  _ Oh.  _ As soon as Sokka felt something hard pressed against his leg, he knew what was going to happen.  _ Well, if things are gonna turn out that way... _

 

“Please ignore-“ Zuko started but Sokka grinned. “I really wasn’t- I’m not-.”

 

“And what if I’m not in the mood for ignoring?” He propped himself up, swinging one leg fully to the other side of Zuko, who now too had propped himself up on his two elbows,  _ wincing  _ at the friction Sokka had caused, and straddled Zuko’s lap, leaning forwards. If he was being honest, he had wanted to do this yesterday too in the river, but that would’ve been dangerous. Here no one could walk into them. Hopefully. Well, they definitely could, but they probably wouldn’t. Again, hopefully. 

 

“You’re not?” Zuko asked, short of breath, before Sokka leaned in closer, close enough for Zuko to feel his breath on his lips. 

 

“I’m not,” he confirmed, pulling their mouths together. His hands were on Zuko’s face and his thumb was slightly rubbing circles over a patch of skin of the scar, trying to get his tongue in Zuko’s mouth somehow. 

 

It had been a while since that time in the woods, but there were still sparks, Sokka noted. And the situation was definitely a lot better now. There was a lot less… potential to die or something like that. Or get captured. Or both. And they knew each other better now, and had a better bound. If you asked Sokka, they understood each other now too. This just made the sparks stronger, as if they hadn’t been overwhelmingly strong before. 

 

“Sokka,” Zuko panted against his mouth inbetween kissed.  _ Fuck, my name sounds so good coming out of his mouth like this.  _

 

He pushed the other down to lie on his back again and leaned more forwards so they could keep on kissing, fully hanging over Zuko. 

 

It was way less awkward than the last time they had done this, both more sure of what they were doing this time, and more sure of why they were doing it too. “Fuck, Zuko,” Sokka’s breath became heavy before pulling away, only to do something he knew the other was a fan of. 

 

“You like this, right?” He said while kissing his neck, sometimes biting or sucking the skin slightly, knowing it was driving the other, who was squirming under him, insane.  _ Last time it had left a mark. Would that really be a bad thing now?  _ It’s not like their friends hadn’t already put two and two together anyway. 

 

Zuko’s voice almost came out like a sob. “Yea,” he said, as if it was the only thing he could say before his brain fully shortwired. 

 

He felt the heat of Zuko’s hand going under his shirt, and his own pants becoming way too tight. 

 

Sokka tangled his fingers in Zuko’s hair and kept going with what he was doing, as the other laid there letting it all happen to him,  _ moaning. Fucking moaning.  _ Okay, this was unfair. 

 

_ Zuko’s moans are beautiful _ , Sokka decided. 

 

“Fuck, Sokka,” he could feel the other’s warm hands moving up to his chest, finally taking his nipples between his fingers which made Sokka’s breath hitch because he wasn’t used to it but definitely not opposed to it either. 

 

“Fuck,” Sokka could hear his own voice say. He was already painfully hard at this point, and he was sure Zuko was too. “Wait-“ he finally pulled back, sitting up straight , breathing heavily and Zuko slid his hands from under his shirt all too quickly, clearly scared he had done something wrong. 

 

“Uh, sorry,” he tried. “I didn’t mean to-”

 

Sokka got off his lap, but only to grin once again and hover more over him, palming Zuko’s cock through his pants, resulting in Zuko’s confused look fading away and even more moaning. “I think we should do something about this, shouldn’t we,” Sokka smirked, sliding one hand under the other’s waistband. 

 

~~

 

They were both completely out of breath, and should definitely get up and wash off because this was going to get really gross otherwise, but Sokka couldn’t bring himself to. 

 

His head rested on Zuko’s chest once again.  _ My new favourite place _ , he decided. He listened to Zuko’s heartbeat that was still way up from their recent activities. His warm skin was definitely a firebender thing which was also unfair if you asked Sokka, because it was way too comforting. How could he possibly  _ not  _ want to cuddle Zuko? A lot of things about the other were unfair. The warmth, how his moans sounded, his golden eyes. Seriously. Who the fuck has golden eyes?

 

“I think,” he began. “We could make this, a  _ thing _ .”

 

“A thing?” Zuko asked, clearly not fully getting it, or maybe just not wanting to get his hopes up, or maybe still groggy from what they had been doing. 

 

“This whole soulmate thing? I think we should try it. Officially,” Sokka decided, frankly wanting nothing more than being able to do this every day of his life if Zuko let him. “If you want that of course,” not that he doubted that now. 

 

He looked quite shocked. “Really?”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Good point,” Zuko finally said. “Should we tell the others?”

 

“Why not? Are you ashamed of me?” he teased, even though the other wasn’t very good at telling teasing and not-teasing apart.

 

“More like the other way around,” his eyes looked away.

 

“Don’t be stupid.”

 

Sokka lifted himself up now and kissed Zuko on the forehead.  _ This is so domestic.  _ “Come on, let’s go clean up,” he tried pulling the other up. They had things to do today, sadly enough. 

 

“Wait!” Zuko said when they both stood up. “Are you sure?”

 

“Zuko,” Sokka sighed. “You worry too much,” he leaned forwards to quickly kiss Zuko once again as confirmation. 

 

_ Maybe this whole soulmate thing wasn’t too bad after all.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for this story, I might upload a couple one shots set in this universe if I am inspired, but for now, this is it ^^ Thank you all so so much for the kudos and comments and taking the time for reading this story I greatly appreciate it!

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr under the name zukkastuff! ^^


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